The Alternate Factor
by karkovice
Summary: This is a "spin off" story detailing an "alternate" plot to The Truth Is Out There. I strongly suggest you read that story first before delving into this one.
1. Preface

**THE ALTERNATE FACTOR**

**PREFACE**

"The Chronicler", a friend of mine and fellow LBT admirer, was the one who planted the seed in my brain for this story. Although he says that this was supposed to be MY story, I can't help but give credit where credit is due.

It took me a short while to actually think about how to word this story in order to make it more interesting to all those who wish to read it, and I really can't say if I've created another "masterpiece", or a "dud". I leave it up to you, the reader, to make up your own minds.

I strongly recommend you read the "originator" of this story, The Truth Is Out There, before reading this one, to get an idea of the background for this, an "offshoot", as opposed to a "sequel", of that story. I guess you can call this an "alternate plot" to The Truth Is Out There where the eternal question "What if?" is asked.

If you've read that story first, you'll notice that I've borrowed some of the text of that story, and added it into some of the chapters here. Since this is an "alternate plot" story, I felt it necessary to include some of those scenes in here to sort of "tie in" the new scenes in here.

Of course, Star Trek has played a big part in my life growing up, and it still does, even to this day. Of course, the plot to this story is based off of the episodes and movies that were made that dealt with the subject becoming trapped in an alternate universe.

In any case, I hope you enjoy this little story I put together. I hope everything properly falls into place to make this another excellent read for you, my loyal fans.


	2. Chapter 1 Sharptooth Error

**CHAPTER 1**

**SHARPTOOTH ERROR**

"Another job well done, Lieutenants..." Captain Kirkland said with a smile as he walked down the ship's corridor.

"Thank you, sir!" Briank replied.

"Note commendations to Mr. Kark, of course...I'm retiring for the evening now!" Kirkland said as he reached the sliding doors to his quarters. "I expect your report by 0900 hours tomorrow morning, Lieutenants!"

"You'll have it, sir!" Briank said.

Kirkland smiled and nodded. "Good! And please... no more surprises..." He then said just as the Riggs left for their own quarters.

"You can count on us, sir!" Yolanda said with a nervous grin.

"Carry on!" Kirkland nodded.

With that, both rainbow faces nervously walked away.

Kirkland shook his head as he entered into his quarters. Almost as soon as the sliding doors closed behind him, he made his way to his work desk and sat down in front of his log computer. He pressed the necessary button to activate the recorder and said the following:

"Captain's personal log... Interstellar date 10116.9.27. It has been a... harrowing week here on board the Enterprise, to say the least. I don't even know where to begin when it comes to describing what happened these past few days... I guess I can start at the beginning... It all started when..."

* * *

On the Enterprise, inside Kark's quarters, he was sitting on a mattress laid out on the floor that he used for his meditations. He was in the traditional cross legged position his people adopted whenever they went into their meditation sessions. He had his eyes closed, and he maintained the normal breathing pattern of a Vulkadian in typical deep meditation.

The beeping sound of his communicator located on his work desk indicating an incoming message resonated throughout his quarters. This made him slowly open his eyes as he came out of his trance. He raised his left eyeridge in a questioning manner as the communicator beeped again. He slowly got up to move towards it.

It beeped a third time before he picked it up and opened it. "Yes?" he asked, holding it close to his mouth.

"Kark? This is Lieutenant Riggs..." came Briank's voice from the handheld device.

"Why are you contacting me on my private communicator frequency, Lieutenant?" Kark asked.

"We have a huge favour to ask you..." Briank said.

Kark raised his left eyeridge a second time. "What sort of favour?" he asked.

Briank cleared his throat. "Well... I don't quite know how to ask this of you, but... we have a bunch of young Saurians here with us, and we'd like to bring them aboard the Enterprise for a tour..."

Kark raised his eyeridges, as he always did, whenever someone surprised him the way Briank just did. "You must realize, Lieutenant, that this would be a serious breach of protocol. Not to mention The Primary Directive! Why would you want to do this?" he asked his Lieutenant.

Yolanda took over. "Well, Kark, they found out some things about us... and insisted we tell them the truth..."

"...Yes! And NOW, they won't let us be until we tell them 'the whole truth'." Briank completed. His parents always told him that 'honesty was the best policy', and he was being 'honest' with his commanding office right now.

"And this... 'whole truth'... includes letting them see the Enterprise?" Kark asked.

"Y..yes, sir!" Briank said nervously.

Kark raised his eyeridge again. "Lieutenant, I must insist that..."

"You can lecture us on the Court Martial charges LATER, Kark!" Briank interrupted. "Do us this one favour, and we'll never ask anything of you again!"

"It's the 'logical' thing to do, Kark." Yolanda said in turn.

Kark stayed silent for a few moments, then said into the communicator. "Very well, Lieutenant."

He could hear both rainbow faces breathe a huge sigh of relief. "Thank you, Kark! THANK YOU!" he heard Yolanda say with joy. "You won't regret this!"

"'Regret' is a rainbow face emotion which 'I' do not share..." Kark flatly stated.

Briank laughed. "Of course, Kark! We sometimes forget that you're a Vulkadian!"

Kark raised his eyeridge yet again. "Understood... I must point out, however, that the Captain would never approve..."

"Which is why we're counting on you to keep this a secret..." Briank said.

"Indeed!" Kark said, raising his eyeridges briefly. "All right. The Captain is scheduled to go off duty shortly. Knowing him, he shall retire to his quarters where he shall sleep for about 7 hours. I shall contact you then with further instructions."

"Thanks again, Kark! We owe you one... Briank out!" he said as he pressed the button on the cockpit console the close the communicator channel.

"You owe me SEVERAL, Lieutenant!" Kark said as he closed his communicator.

* * *

For the next hour or so, the rainbow faces, Little Foot and his gang were sitting aroung the table chatting about various things. The conversations mainly revolved around the day's occurences and the story the rainbow faces told. Little Foot asked other questions, which the rainbow faces did their best to answer.

Then the communicator Briank kept on the table beeped, he quieted everybody down as he took it up. "Yes?"

"Mr. Kark here. The Captain has just retired to his quarters. You may come aboard now..."

"Great!" Briank exclaimed into the communicator.

"I have also informed key personnel of you and your friends' impending arrival. They, in turn, shall inform their underlings. All will be made aware that we are not to tell of this to the Captain. It shall be... our little secret."

"Thank you, sir!" Briank smiled.

"We shall rendez-vous in the shuttle bay. Kark out!"

Once the communicator was closed, everyone cried in joy at the new adventuring they are going to do.

* * *

When they reached space, the rainbow faces allowed Little Foot and his gang to view outside from the cockpit's two large windows. They were just in awe at the starry sky they saw.

"Look at all the stars!" Ruby commented. "I didn't know you could see so many stars from up here!"

"It's BEAUTIFUL!" Ducky said in awe.

"It sure is!" Chomper said, echoing her sentiment.

"There she is!" Briank said as he pointed towards his right. "The Enterprise!" He smiled.

"WOOOOOOWWWW..." Little Foot and Cera both said simultaneously, while everyone else just stood wide mouthed awe.

"That no look like giant egg with legs!" Petrie said when he finally regained his speech.

"It's not supposed to..." Briank said.

"The triangular wedge shape design is to make it travel more quickly through space..." Yolanda said.

"Space???" Little Foot asked in confusion.

Briank smiled. "Beyond The Mysterious Beyond!"

"So THAT'S what it's really called! SPACE!!!" Little Foot exclaimed, putting two and two together.

"The final frontier, kids! And you're in it!!" Briank happily said.

"What about the colour of it?" Cera asked in reference to the ship. "Does it have any special meaning?"

"Not really..." Yolanda said. "We simply chose that colour because... well... it's the same colour as the oceans of Terra."

"Terra?" Little Foot asked.

Briank chuckled. "The name we rainbow faces gave to your planet..."

"The oceans???" Cera asked.

"Big water!" Yolanda smiled.

"Oh." Cera nodded. "You rainbow faces sure have strange names for LOTS of things..."

"Comes with being civilized!" Briank smiled and shrugged.

As they neared the vessel, something caught Little Foot's eye. "What are those markings?" he asked.

"THOSE represent the call sign for the Enterprise." Briank said in explanation. "VHK-937! Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" He smiled.

"Sure... What about that circle with all the lines going across it?" Little Foot asked.

"That's the symbol for the United Federation of Spacefaring Species!" Yolanda said in explanation.

"Oh... Makes sense!" Little Foot nodded.

"Here we are!" Briank announced as he maneuvered the shuttlepod into the Enterprise's shuttle bay.

A few minutes later, after the bay was repressurized, the rear hatch and ramp was opened and everybody climbed out. Briank and Yolanda made sure they put on their rank shirt before they stepped out, not wanting to appear "out of uniform" in front of Kark.

* * *

"...Now, if Mr. Kark allowing both Lieutenants Riggs to bring those Saurian kids on board wasn't bad enough," Kirkland continued saying into his recorder. "one of them just HAD to..."

* * *

Around two hours later, the gang was on the Bridge of the Enterprise, exploring everything and asking questions as they went.

Chomper was sitting in Lieutenant Hiraku Chang's lap as he was describing the functioning of his console to the young sharptooth. "This station controls all of the ship's weapons, shields, maneuvering thrusters, sub light engines and Ultra Light speed drive."

"Neat!" Chomper exclaimed as he looked down at all of the button controls the console had. "You sound like you know this stuff!"

Lieutenant Chang smiled. "Well, with eight years' experience as a Tactical Officer on many starships, I know a thing or two!"

Chomper chuckled. "Hey! What's this button do?" He then asked as he pressed a lighted button on the console.

"NO! DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Lieutenant Chang exclaimed.

You could hear the hum of the maneuvering engines kick in, and a slight pitch was felt as the starship began to veer in a direction no one expected, or predicted.

Lieutenant Chang set Chomper down on the floor and feverishly worked at reversing what Chomper had done.

"Mr. Kark!" he exclaimed. "The maneuvering thrusters have just been activated..."

Kark raised an eyeridge. "Well, deactivate them, Lieutenant."

"I can't, sir!" Lieutenant Chang exclaimed as he pressed several buttons on his console. "It's locked in! Sir, the ship's breaking orbit! We're heading in a new direction!"

"What's our course?" Mr. Kark asked.

"Course hweading: One one three mark seven." Lieutenant Koralenko said from his station. "Towards that ion stworm."

"We're headed straight for it!" Lieutenant Chang announced.

"Can we reverse?" Mr. Kark asked.

"Impossible!" Lieutenant Chang answered. "An old battle drill program's been activated. There's no turning back, and we can't override!"

"All hands, brace for impact!" Mr. Kark announced on the ship wide speakers.

As soon as the Enterprise entered the ion storm, everyone on board felt the turbulance within. When they emerged from it several minutes later, the battle drill program that was activated had completed it's cycle. They were able to regain ship's controls and plotted a course back to Terra.

* * *

"... Of course, I blame Lieutenant Chang for allowing that young sharptooth to press the button which accidentally activated the maneuvering thrusters and made us enter that ion storm. Fortunately for everybody, damage was minimal; but the first indication we had that made us realize we weren't where we were supposed to be was when..."

* * *

"What happened?" Chief Engineer Sloan asked from his station.

"Somebody touched something they weren't SUPPOSED to!" Lieutenant Chang said in scorn to Chomper.

"Chomper?" Little Foot said.

"I didn't mean to! It was an accident!" Chomper whined in his own defence.

"You just HAD to press that shiny little rock, DID YOU!?" Cera growled.

"I'm sorry..." Chomper whimpered.

"GRRR! Why I oughta..." Cera growled as she raised a paw as if to slap Chomper, making the young sharptooth recoil.

"There is no cause for concern." Mr. Kark said. "At least, the ship is still intact, and nobody was hurt."

"FORTUNATELY for YOU!" Cera growled again at the cowering Chomper.

* * *

"Synchronous orbit reestablished, sir." Lieutenant Chang announced once he's completed his maneuvers.

"Well done, Lieutenant." Mr. Kark said.

"Thank you, sir." Lieutenant Chang responded.

No sooner had he said that that the sliding doors opened up to reveal an anxious Captain Kirkland.

"What in the name of The Primal Egg is..." Kirkland began, but his phrase was cut short upon seeing Little Foot and his gang.

"Mr. Kark?" Kirkland asked as he turned his attention to his First Officer.

"Yes, Captain?" Kark said as he got beside the Captain with his hand behind his back, in typical Vulkadian fashion.

"Care to explain all this?" Kirkland pressed.

Kark cleared his throat. "Well, Captain... I shall defer the explanation to Lieutenant Briank Riggs, as this was HIS idea."

Kirkland turned to face Briank. "Lieutenant! Care to fill me in?" He asked his a smile.

Briank cleared his throat. "Actually, it was Yolanda's idea..." he said with a nervous grin. Yolanda simply glared at him.

"Yolanda?" Kirkland pressed.

She cleared her throat. "I can explain everything..."

"I'm all earholes!" the Captain said with some exasperation.

Yolanda then told the story of how their mission to Terra went, and how they came to decide to bring Little Foot and his gang on board the Enterprise because if their relentless drive to know the truth of the rainbow faces' origins on the planet.

"Waaaaaiit!" Kirkland said as he put a hand up. "Let me get this straight: Because of these Saurian kids' insistence, you decided to bring them aboard the Enterprise for a GRAND TOUR!!? And you were able to convince Mr. Kark to APPROVE all this behind my BACK!!?"

Yolanda swallowed the lump in her throat. "Y... yes, sir!"

"It took quite a bit of persuasion for Kark to accept all this as the... LOGICAL thing to do..." Briank said in defence of his wife. He flashed his nervous grin again.

"Logical thing..." Kirk muttered before continuing his tyrade. "Do you have ANY IDEA what the repercussions something like this could..."

"Captain!" Lieutenant Urbina interrupted from her communications station.

"What!?" Kirkland asked rather forcefully.

"We're receiving an incoming message... on the Inter Stellar channel..."

"Source?" Kirkland asked.

Lieutenant Urbina pressed a few channels on her console. "Source is..." Urbina got a stunned look when she determined what the source. "Captain, it's impossible! The signal is coming from an orbital station..."

Kark raised an eyeridge as his sign of surprise.

"Orbital station???" Kirkland muttered. "I don't remember there being an active space station around Terra... Did you check your instruments, Lieutenant?"

"Yes, sir. Everything is in perfect order..." Lieutenant Urbina announced. "The signal is definately coming from a space station orbiting Terra."

"Put it on audio..." Kirkland ordered after a few moments.

Lieutenant Urbina pressed the necessary button on her console.

"Unidentified vessel!" began the male voice. "This is Federation Monitoring Station 'Exeter'. Please respond and identify..."

Everybody on the Bridge looked at each other in confusion.

"Open a channel..." Kirkland ordered after a few moments.

Lieutenant Urbina pressed another button on her console, then nodded to Kirkland to indicate the channel was open.

"Monitoring Station 'Exeter', this is Captain Jarrok T. Kirkland on board the U.I.S.V. Enterprise..."

"Enterprise???" the male at the other end said in surprise. "What are you doing back here??? You're supposed to be exploring the Beta Quadrant..."

"We've had a... minor setback..." Kirkland said in improvisation. Then he had a brainstorm. "Would Admiral Foster be available?"

"I'll see if I can put him through to you..." the male voice responded.

"Thank you!" Kirkland then pressed the button on his Captain's chair to mute the channel.

"Lieutenant Urbina, relay communication to my quarters..."

"Aye aye, sir." She said in response.

"The rest of you, stay here!" Kirkland ordered. "And Mr. Kark? Keep an eye on 'em." Kirkland ordered his first officer as he gestured towards the young Saurians. Cera rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Mr. Kark simply bowed in acknowledgment.

With that, Captain Kirkland stormed off of the Bridge and into the turbo lift.


	3. Chapter 2 White Lies

**CHAPTER 2**

**WHITE LIES**

As soon as the sliding doors to Kirkland's quarters closed, he immediately went to his communications console and pressed the button to open the channel.

"Admiral Foster..." Kirkland said as the image of the aging Space Fleet officer sitting at his office desk came on the screen.

"Jarrok!" the Admiral exclaimed. "We weren't expecting you back until..." He turned his attention to a data pad located to his right. "two weeks from now... What happened?"

"It's difficult to explain...Admiral..." Captain Kirkland lied. "We're in need of minor repairs..."

"I'll assign an engineering team to help you..."

"Much appreciated, Admiral..." Kirkland nodded.

"Please, you can call me 'Bartok'!" The Admiral smiled. "As the officer who gave you your first command, and who introduced you to my lovely daughter, we should be on a first name basis, should we?"

Kirkland smiled back. "That's true... As for your daughter, that was good while it lasted..."

The Admiral smiled and nodded back. "She still thinks highly of you, you know... and occasionally asks what you've been up to..."

"Glad to hear! But as you know, marriage with her was impossible, given our choice of careers..."

"Nonsense! My wife was a botanist, just like she is; and look at how good WE'VE turned out!"

"I've learned not to set my hopes too high, when it comes to this sort of thing..."

"I could talk to her for you..."

"NO! No..." Kirkland interrupted. "That won't be necessary. Besides, I think she's happy with us being just close friends."

The Admiral shrugged. "As you wish...Anyway, as long as you're back in dry dock, how's about a few games of three dimensional chess over drinks?"

"Better me than Mr. Kark?" Kirkland teased.

The Admiral chuckled. "ESPECIALLY Mr. Kark! That big Vulkadian's the ONLY ONE who's ever beaten me in eight moves!"

Kirkland laughs. "And strangely enough, I'm able to beat HIM in five..."

"Yeah... but he saps all of the fun out of the game, I find! And he won't even touch a DROP of liquor! I never trust a male who doesn't drink..."

Kirkland laughed again. "All right. I have a few loose ends to tie up up here, then I'll be right down..."

"Look forward to seeing you, Jarrok!" Admiral Foster said with a smile as his image faded out.

Kirkland then pressed his intercom button to his left. "Kirkland to Bridge..."

On the Bridge, Kark got up from the scanner at his science station, then moved to press the intercom button on the Captain's chair. "Bridge. Kark here."

"Admiral Foster wants to see me in his office, so I'll be beaming down shortly..."

"Understood, Captain." Kark said.

"... Any ideas as to what happened?" Kirkland asked.

"Only a working theory at this time, Captain." Kark answered.

"... It's better than nothing..." Kirkland mused.

"When we passed through the ion storm, a complex series of events took place which propelled us into this... alternate dimension..."

A look of surprise appeared on Kirkland's face. "Alternate dimensions???"

"Yes, Captain... It would explain much..." Kark stated.

"Yes, it WOULD, Mr. Kark. I've heard of the possibility of alternate universes. It was also a required course at the Academy. But it's all just theories..."

"Until now..." Kark said, raising an eyeridge. "I also request your presence on the Bridge, there is important information I wish to partake upon you..."

"I'll be right up!" Kirkland said as he closed his intercom, got up and walked out of his quarters.

* * *

"You sure about your findings?" Kirkland asked.

Kark nodded. "The scans don't lie, Captain. Terra is not as we know it. The millions of rainbow faces still living on the surface, as well as the many thousands of Vulkadians located in several colonies on the planet, would certainly attest to that. Not to mention the many cities and structures I've detected that were never there, according to the historical texts."

Kirkland nodded. "All right." Then he turned his attention to Briank. "And you're absolutely positive you want to do this, Lieutenant?"

"Why not, Captain? I think exploring this new Terra shouldn't be an opportunity to pass up. I mean, after all, we ARE explorers, aren't we?"

Kirkland smiled. "All right. I don't think a little away mission wouldn't hurt. You'll be in charge of it, Mr. Kark."

"Understood, Captain."

"Mr. Kark?" Little Foot said as he approached the big Vulkadian. "Can we come with you, me and my friends?"

"Since there is no immediate danger, I think that is allowable..." Kark said in answer.

Little Foot and his friends cheered at the new adventuring they're going to do.

"Keep an eye on 'em." Kirkland whispered to his first officer while all of the commotion was going on.

"Understood, Captain." Kark said in acknowledgement.

Kirkland then dissapeared in the turbo lift to head down to the transporter room.


	4. Chapter 3 A Brave New World

**CHAPTER 3**

**A BRAVE NEW WORLD**

On the surface of Terra, the forms of Mr. Kark, both Lieutenants Riggs, Little Foot and his gang materialized from the transporter beam. Since there was room for no more than six people at a time on the Enterprise's transporter platform, the entire landing party had to beam down in two groups.

"Wow, Mr. Kark! That transporter thing is REALLY practical!" Chomper commented.

"Indeed!" Kark said with a raise of his eyeridge.

"Yeah! Except I wouldn't wanna use it all the time! Too much of a good thing can be bad for you!" Cera grumbled.

Almost everyone in Little Foot's gang rolled their eyes. Yolanda couldn't help but chuckle under her breath.

They walked up to a huge sign that read: WELCOME TO FRANCESCANVILLE! THE CAPITAL OF CALEDONIA STATE & THE HUB OF THE FEDERATION!

"Funny, I don't remember there being a city called 'Francescanville' on Terra..." Briank commented.

"That is because on OUR Terra, that city never existed..." Kark said matter-of-factly.

"Duuuuh!!" Cera exclaimed.

"CERA!" Little Foot whispered in reprimand to her.

"So where to now, Mr. Kark?" He then asked as he approached the Vulkadian.

"The only logical place: The big building complex I've detected during my initial scans. We are bound to find some valuable information there..."

"Yes! It sounds like the place to learn things we haven't learned before..." Ruby commented in her usual fashion.

Spike nodded his agreement and uttered "Uh huh".

With that, Kark led them down the road that would bring them to this unfamiliar city on this alternate Terra.

* * *

A short while later, the landing party arrived in the downtown sector of Francescanville. Along the way, they saw the many signs of a highly advanced rainbow face society: Flying shuttlepods of all kinds moving through the air, futuristic office buildings and residential complexes, and many rainbow faces wearing clothing items depicting their social status. Briank, Yolanda and Kark wore their Space Fleet rank shirts, and they received polite nods, smiles and greetings from those who crossed paths with them.

The many Saurians they saw walking around preferred to go around without clothes, as was their "tradition", and nobody gave them a second look. Some, however, did wear "socks" or some kind of coverings on their feet, but that was the extent of the "clothing" they wore; so Little Foot and his gang didn't feel too out of place.

They also saw some Vulkadian males and females alike walking around with their traditional robes. Some even more headresses that hid their horns. They saw a few, however, who wore their Space Fleet rank shirts; and a few rainbow faces, as well. Whenever a Vulkadian-be they male or female, alone or in pairs- passed Kark, they gave him the traditional clawed hand salute that literally meant "Peace Be With You". Kark politely returned the salute to them.

"Remarkable!" Yolanda would say at one point. "Everything is exactly like on Terra Beta! Right down to the marble statue of Zakari Cochrane!!" She commented as she pointed out the statue near a fountain. It was an elegant statue depicting a middle aged rainbow face standing proud and pointing towards the sky.

"Zakari Cochrane?" Little Foot asked.

"Yes! He was the one who discovered the Ultra Light Speed drive!" Briank said with a smile.

"With the help of us Vulkadians, of course..." Kark chimed in.

Briank nodded. "Of course, but he was the one who conducted the first Ultra Light Speed flight..."

"Which was a crowning achievement at the time for your culture..." Kark chimed in again.

Then he turned his attention to a building he was leading them to. "Ah... I believe we have arrived at our destination." Kark announced as he stopped in front of the building in question. It was a stone carved building that a sign on the front that read "FEDERATION CENTRAL LIBRARY".

"What IS this place!?" Cera asked with some impatience.

"This, dear Cera, is called a 'library'." Briank answered.

"Library??? What's a 'library'?" Cera asked.

"A place of great learning, dearie." Yolanda said with a smile.

"And 'learning' is what we are here to do! Yep, yep, YEP!" Ducky said with enthusiasm.

"Follow me." Kark said as he led the entire landing party inside the building.

* * *

A few minutes later, the landing party entered the building that was the FEDERATION CENTRAL LIBRARY. While this was a familiar site to the adults, all of the dino kids were just in wide mouthed awe at the immensity of the place. Yet as vast as the place was, it was strangely quiescent to them.

An aging rainbow face male sitting at the front desk looked up from his viewing console, stood up and came to greet the group.

"Welcome to the FEDERATION CENTRAL LIBRARY." the rainbow face male began with a smile. "I am Mr. Ata, the Head Librarian. How may I help you?"

The elder male did indeed look to be a Librarian. He wore a simple black robe with white trim denoting a scholar.

"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Ata!" Briank said as he came forward. "I'm Dr. Briank Riggs, Historian for the Space Fleet! How do you do?" Briank smiled as he took the Librarian's hand. "This is my wife, Yolanda Riggs, who is also my assistant." He said as he gestured to Yolanda. Both she and the Librarian exhanged bows. "And these fine young Saurians are my students." The Librarian smiled and bowed at the children, who politely returned the bow.

"And the Vulkadian?" Mr. Ata asked.

"I, too, am also assisting Dr. Riggs...and am an amateur historian myself..."

"Well... Welcome to my library!" Mr. Ata beamed. "Everything you see here is at your disposal." He announced as he waves his hands around. "Was there anything in particular you were looking for?"

"We're doing a research project on... ancient history... and we're hoping to look at any material you have on it..." Briank answered.

"Well, you're in luck! We have PLENTY of files on ancient history... Any particular period?"

"The events leading up to The Petrograd Massacre, and subsequent events before The Great Departure..." Yolanda asked.

Mr. Ata looked puzzled. "Petrograd... Massacre??? I'm sorry. I've never heard of there being a massacre in Petrograd before... And Great Departure??? Did somebody 'depart' from this place?"

Briank and Yolanda looked at each other. Kark simply raised an eyeridge as his sign of Vulkadian surprise. "Wwwwell... We'd like to see what you have from around that time..." Briank said quickly.

"And what time period would that be?" The Librarian asked.

"Roughly ten thousand years ago..." Yolanda answered.

"Oh! I see! That IS quite a long ways back. I fear that most of the records of that period have been lost, but let me show you what I have..." The Librarian said as he gestured for the group to follow.

He brought them to an area where there were shelves full of small drawers and a few projection viewers. "Here's where we keep all of our files on ancient history. For the period that you are interested in, you must focus your research on this section here." The Librarian gestured at the rows of drawers about eight feet across and about six feet high.

"How does it work?" Little Foot asked as he gestured towards one of the projectors.

The Librarian got that puzzled look again.

Briank quickly intervened. "Please forgive him. He's never seen a visual file projector before..." he said, grinning nervously.

"Yes! But he'd appreciate it if you indulged him by showing him how it worked..." Yolanda offered.

"All right!" The Librarian smiled. "It's a fairly simple device. You just take one of the file discs from the drawer here, and place it in the proper slot on the projector to see what's inside..."

Mr. Ata demonstrated by taking a random disc from one of the drawers he'd just opened and placing it on the projector. The projector made a high pitched dinging noise as it accepted the disc, and made a warbling sound as it opened the visual file.

"OH!" The Librarian exclaimed. "It's in the wrong file drawer! I'll have to put it in it's proper place... DARN KIDS!" he muttered under his breath, but not soft enough so nobody could hear. "Nothing personal, young ones..." he then said, catching himself.

Cera "humpf"ed as she got an angry look.

"If ever you need anything, I shall be at my desk." the Librarian said as he began to leave.

"Thank you, Mr. Ata!" Briank smiled.

The Librarian smiled and bowed as he left.

"Well, let's get to work!" Briank gestured as he ordered.

Ducky was grunting as she jumped up, trying to reach a drawer that was above her. "I cannot reach!" she said in frustration. "I needed help! I do! I do!"

"Me help!" Petrie announced as he flew up to the drawer to grab a disc from it.

"Thank you, Petrie!" Ducky gladly said.

"Nooo problem!" Petrie said as he put the disc in the projector's slot, which made the high pitched dinging noise again, as well as the warbling sound as it played the visual file. Ducky backed up so she could see from the floor what was being shown from the disc while Petrie just hovered over it. Everybody else did the same from another drawer in the ancient history section.


	5. Chapter 4 Inside The Admiral's Office

**CHAPTER 4**

**INSIDE THE ADMIRAL'S OFFICE**

Captain Kirkland was sitting across from Admiral Foster at the lounge table the Admiral kept in his office. There was a three dimensional chess set between them, and they were in the midst of their fifth game. They had split the wins amongst themselves, and Kirkland was ahead in this one. There was a bottle of bourbon within reach of both males, and they had already gone through half of it.

The replicator in the Admiral's office could reproduce almost every kind of alcoholic beverage there was, yet it could never seem to reproduce the flavour, or alcoholic texture, of the real thing(matter of fact, there was not a drop of alcohol it that resequenced protein drink, so nobody was able to get drunk from it!).

Neither male cared any for replicated alcohol. They always preferred the real deal, especially bourbon. That was the one thing they both shared in common, and made them friends. Although half the newly opened bottle of bourbon was gone, neither male felt drunk enough to pass out. That was another thing they had in common: They both could hold their liquor!

They spent those two hours or so playing three dimensional chess, drinking the bottle of bourbon, and talking about all sorts of things.

"I find it hard to believe that the Enterprise would double back on itself to come back here all for a bunch of... minor repairs." The Admiral began. "Sounds to me like this was stuff you could've taken care of en route... Especially with that competent Chief Engineer you've got... What was his name again?"

Kirkland smiled. "Sloan..."

The Admiral nodded. "I was never good with names, only faces..." He took a sip from his glass. "Still, it puzzles me why you would DELAY an important mission like this over such a trivial matter..."

"You'll have to accept it as such... Bartok... Besides, you can't say that you're not glad that I'm here, now, playing chess with you and sharing a bottle of your best bourbon, now, can you?" Kirkland said as he downed what was left in his glass.

The Admiral chuckled. "That's true, Jarrok! Still... of all the captains and officers I've known throughout my career, you're the most enigmatic of all..." He said as he refilled Kirkland's glass.

"My mother used to say the same thing!" Kirkland replied as he grabbed some more ice from the container that was right next to the bottle and placed it in his glass with the set of tongs provided.

"So did my daughter... Speaking of which..."

The whistle of his office intercom interrupted him. "What now!?" the Admiral groaned and grumbled as he went to his work desk to press the intercom button accepting the incoming call. "Yes?" he said into it.

"Sorry to disturb you, sir..." came the voice of the Enterprise's Chief Engineer. "But is the Captain there?"

"He is, just a minute!" the Admiral replied just before he hit the "mute" button. He then motioned for Kirkland to come take the call.

"Kirkland here." The Captain said after unmuting the intercom.

"Progress report, sir. Our repairs are coming along fine. We should be done in approximately three hours."

"Very good, Mr. Sloan! Carry on! Mr. Kark should be back on board shortly with the information that could..." he glanced back towards the Admiral. "... gauge the progress of our mission..."

"Aye... I'll await his return. I'm anxious to hear what he's got for us!"

"Me, too! Kirkland out..." He then pressed the "release" button to end the call.

"'Gauge the progress of your mission'???" The Admiral asked in confusion.

"I asked Mr. Kark to update our files on the Beta Quadrant, in case nothing was overlooked from the database compiled by the Vulkadian scout ships who previously explored that part of the galaxy." Kirk said in explanation.

The Admiral smiled and nodded. "Smart thinking! Now, what were we discussing before we were rudely interrupted?"

"Your lovely daughter..." Kirkland smiled.

"Ah, yes! You know, I strongly recommend you go talk to her. She's still working at The Cretaceous Institute in Sarasonoma maintaining the greenhouse they have there."

"If you insist..." Kirkland smiled again. "We don't plan to depart again for the Beta Quadrant until two or three days from now, so there's still plenty of time..."

The Admiral smiled back. "You won't regret it! In the meantime, here's to new explorations..." He said as he raised his glass.

"To new explorations..." Kirkland said as he klinked his glass with that of the Admiral's.

For the remainder of the afternoon, both males continued playing chess, talking and drinking the fine bottle of bourbon the Admiral brought out.


	6. Chapter 5 Relearning History

**RELEARNING HISTORY**

The entire landing party had to essentially relearn history, as events did not unfold the same way on this alternate Terra as it did on theirs.

Everything was pretty much the same up to the point where the debates at The United League of Nations regarding The Wildlife Preservation Act began. Kanatia had named a different Ambassador for their Kanatian contingent. So it was wasn't Benek Boudreau-Gallant who was named, but another Francescan Kanatian named Petek Elliot-Trudeau; and he had a reputation of being a very strong-willed politician who wouldn't take any crap from anybody.

He made himself the leader of the group of United League of Nations dignitaries who were opposed to the Wildlife Preservation Act, and they rallied themselves behind him. Their opposition became so fierce that the United Laurentian States Ambassador was forced to withdraw the motion. No official vote was even taken to defeat the motion, and all of the paperwork regarding the Act was relegated to a forgotten vault they named "File 13", and no politician ever spoke about it publicly again.

From that day, Petek Elliot-Trudeau became an international celebrity, and would later become Prime Minister of Kanatia; while Benek Boudreau-Gallant became just a footnote in the political history of Kanatia, never going anywhere beyond Provincial Premier. Even then, he only held office for barely a year before his government was defeated by a vote of no confidence. He retired from politics a short time after that.

Mr. Kark, the rainbow face adults and the Saurian children all saw visual images of news reports relating to The Wildlife Preservation Act, as well as newsreel footage of Saurian protests in various cities all throughout Terra(including Petrograd). But none of the protests ever turned overly violent. They saw a few Saurians get arrested by rainbow face police for being rowdy, but no Saurians or rainbow faces were killed during the protests.

They also saw the press conference given by the President of The United League of Nations announcing the defeat of the proposal for the Act to which the Saurians seen in the background jumped up for joy and cheered upon the announcement.

Since then, the rainbow faces and the various Saurian races lived in peaceful coexistence. They saw frontline news reports of cooperative community initiatives where Saurians and rainbow faces lived side by side as friends and neighbours, as well as several "co ed" schools showing rainbow face and Saurian children attending the same schools, and even the same classes! There were also some "home movie" scenes of inter species marriages and subsequent children.

The file discs in the library were very well organized, so it was easy for everyone to follow the timeline all the way up to when The Great Departure was supposed to take place; but it never did because of the peacful coexistence between the races.

From there, they saw the natural progress of this Terran society as far as their technology, politics and culture went, all the way up to the present day. They even saw news reports relating to Zakari Cochrane's initial Light Speed test flights in space, and subsequent First Contact with the Vulkadians; which became known as "The Day Terra Held It's Breath". From there, the development of the first Ultra Light Speed engine, as well as the first rainbow face starships, were seen.

Contrary to the gang's universe, however, the Saurians on this Terra provided the vast majority of the labour force used to construct the ships, and they were always well treated. Just before the maiden voyages of those starships, the Saurian labourers and their families were honoured as leading citizens of the new United Federation of Spacefaring Species, after the rainbow faces and Vulkadians encountered other species and civilizations in deep space. The Saurian/Rainbow Face Space Fleet was governed by The United Terran Space Exploration Agency.

Yet despite their tremendous contribution to building the initial twelve starships that made up the rainbow face Space Fleet, not many Saurians chose to serve on board those ships. Their attitude being that Terra was their real home, and not space; but they still enjoyed all of the same rights and privileges as any other full fledged citizens of The Federation. Yet those few Saurians who served on the rainbow face starships went on to have distinguished careers.

The headquarters for the Federation was established in Francescanville, which was actually named after the Francescan Kanatian Ambassador Petek Elliot-Trudeau in honour of his efforts for encouraging peaceful relations between the Saurians and the more civilized rainbow faces, almost two hundred years ago, and has been in the city ever since. They even saw the news report focusing on the unveiling of his statue at the front of City Hall.

"Fascinating..." Mr. Kark said once he finished viewing the latest file disc from that period.

"THAT'S the way our Terra should have turned out, and not the way it is now!" Briank, who was looking over Kark's shoulder, commented.

"And it was all because of that Kanatian Ambassador, too... Amazing!" Yolanda also commented.

"Indeed!" Kark said with a raise of his eyeridge. "There is an old Vulkadian saying: One Vulkadian can summon the future. As is obviously the case here... Logic also dictates that we cannot undo the past. We can only learn from it and direct the future from there."

"I know we can't undo the past, Kark; but it would be nice if we could..." Briank mused.

Kark nodded. "I have also formulated a theory as to how we can get back to our own universe... I shall return to the Enterprise and work with Mr. Sloan on preparing the ship for our departure..."

"Is that really necessary, Kark?" Briank asked, almost pleading. "This world is far better than the one where we came from! Why can't we stay here!?"

"BECAUSE, Lieutenant, our counterparts in this universe are currently exploring the Beta Quadrant. They will eventually return HERE, to Terra, and the Federation headquarters. If we remain here, we will inevitably encounter our other selves; and if we encounter our other selves, it will cause a paradox unlike any this world has ever seen."

"But that's just a theory..." Briank retorted.

"Correct! But often times, theories can become reality. Logically, however, we cannot stay here!"

Briank sighed and lowered his head. "You're right, Kark, as usual. It was foolish of me to even suggest such a notion. Please forgive me."

Kark nodded. "We have learned all we can learn here. Let's go." He then led back out onto the street, saying their goodbyes to the wise old Librarian Mr. Ata as they left.

Yolanda also had a look of sadness in her eyes, though; as she, too, had grown somewhat attached to this new and better world. Little Foot and his gang, though, didn't quite know what to make of it while they were watching and listening the exchange between the big Vulkadian and Mr. Rainbow Face. A part of them thought that if they stayed here, they would never be able to go back to their home in The Great Valley ever again; while another part of them thought that if there was another Mr. Kark, Mr. And Mrs. Rainbow Face in this world, then there would be another of their own family here as well. It WAS the same time period, after all! They also thought that all those they knew who died, like Little Foot's and Cera's mother, might still be alive in this new and much safer world!

But grown ups being the grown ups they are, and always wanting to do the right thing, made this decision that was for everybody's good. They concluded that they didn't belong here, and that they had to get back to where they do belong. Little Foot understood that, and he was sure that his friends would all eventually come to understand that as well.

* * *

"I shall beam back up to the ship to begin my work." Kark announced as they arrived back outside. "Lieutenants, if you wish to continue exploring this world with these fine young Saurians, you may do so at your own leisure; as we shall not be able to leave until maybe 48 to 72 hours from now..."

Briank smiled. "Thank you, Kark!"

Kark nodded. "Just stay out of trouble..."

"Don't worry, Kark! We will!" Yolanda said.

Kark raised his eyeridge again before he opened up his communicator to signal the ship's transporter room his desire to beam aboard.

The rest of the landing party watched his dematerialize as the transporter beam caught him. The kids were still amazed at the technology involved in breaking the molecules down into a data stream and beaming those molecules back up to the starship.

"LITTLE FOOT! LITTLE FOOT!" Petrie exclaimed just as Mr. Kark dissapeared.

"What is it, Petrie?" Little Foot said as he got beside his flyer friend.

"LOOK!" Petrie exclaimed as he pointed towards a poster diplayed in a showcase on the sidewalk.

Little Foot gasped as he saw what Petrie saw.

"That who I think it is?" Petrie asked.

"OMIGOSH!" Cera said before Little Foot could answer. "Little Foot, that looks just like your father!"

"It IS my father!" Little Foot completed. "Grandma and Grandpa... and..." his eyes grew wide when he saw the familiar female longneck image. "...MOM!"

The poster itself was an advertizement for a new Saurian community for honoured citizens of The Federation, and the family chosen to represent the typical residents of that community happened to be members of Little Foot's family.

"Cera right, Little Foot! That definately Bron..." Petrie said.

"This poster was set up two weeks ago, according to the date here on the bottom..." Briank said as he approached the poster.

"That means... MOM IS STILL ALIVE!" Little Foot joyfully exclaimed. "I have to go see her!!" Little Foot pleaded as he turned to face Briank.

"Whoa! WAIT A MINUTE! Let's understand one thing here, Little Foot..." Briank began. "That female longneck is not YOUR mother. She's the mother of the Little Foot that is a part of this universe."

"But I HAVE to see her again...I barely had a chance to know her before she died!" Little Foot begged.

"Absolutely out of the question, Little Foot!" Briank said. "Remember what Kark said? If your mother, which is HER, is living in this community with her son, which is YOU; then seeing her would mean you run the risk of running into your other self; which will cause this 'paradox' Kark spoke about."

"My husband is right, Little Foot." Yolanda said. "We can't risk that..."

"But..."

"The answer is still 'no', Little Foot!" Briank said with authority.

Little Foot lowered his head to the ground, almost to tears.

Briank put his hand on his shoulder. "I know how you feel, Little Foot. If my own mother were still alive in this world, I'd want to see her, too... But you know that isn't possible..."

Yolanda also moved in to comfort the sad young longneck.

Little Foot sighed, then raised his head to look up at Briank. "Okay... But... Can we still visit that community? I'd at least want to see what it looks like... See what my alternate family's home would look like..."

Briank looked at the name of the community written on the poster. "Oakville... That's not far from here, according to the maps I saw... I guess we can make a small detour through there..."

The entire gang of Saurians jumped and cried for joy.

"But first... I don't know about you, but I'm hungry. Who's up for a little lunch?" Briank asked.

Everybody admitted that they were also hungry.

"But where do we find food?" Cera asked. "I don't see too many places where we can find good tree stars around here..."

"Hmmm..." Briank said as he looked around. "Maybe we can find something over there..." He said as he pointed towards a street that had several neon signs saying "restaurant", "diner" and "eatery". Everybody followed as Briank led them over to where those signs were.

"But if we're going to that 'Oak Ville' place later on, how do we make sure we don't run into this other Little Foot that is there?" Ruby asked.

"We'll just have to stay well away from the actual dwelling where they reside..." Briank answered.

"Oh..." Ruby mused. "I suppose that staying far enough away from the place where they live is a good enough way to not run into this other Little Foot that is living there..."

"You get the point, dearie!" Yolanda chuckled.


	7. Chapter 6 Old Flames Reunite

**OLD FLAMES REUNITE**

It was dusk by the time Captain Kirkland arrived at The Cretacious Institute in Sarasonoma. He had left Admiral Foster's office an hour earlier under the pretense of seeing for himself the progress of the repairs to the ship. Though he did not know where the Institute was, he was able to find his way thanks to a map of the city he saw on a sidewalk billboard.

He was directed by the Receptionist to the greenhouse located in the far right corner of an open area that also had a large pool containing several marine mammals of various sizes. One of them blew a spray of water from it's airhole as it rose to the surface for air.

When he entered the greenhouse, he saw the rainbow face female down towards the back workstation. She was exactly as he remembered her: Sleek, elegant, brightly coloured, and very attractive overall. She wore an apron around her waist, and work gloves on her hands, to avoid from getting soiled by the dirt she was using to pot a few young plants.

She was so preoccupied with what she was doing that she never heard him come up from behind. He smiled as he stopped a few feet away from her.

"Can I have those giant bergonias gift wrapped? They're for a very special lady..." He surprised her by saying.

She quickly turned around, smiled and gasped when she saw who it was. "JARROK!" she exclaimed as she ran into his arms. She forgot to take off her apron, but Captain Kirkland didn't mind the few specks of dirt on his Space Fleet rank shirt he was still wearing as he accepted her warm hug.

"Hi, Jenna!" he said softly to her as he held her in his arms.

"This is surely a surprise! I thought you were gone to the Beta Quadrant..." she said as she relinquished her hug.

"A need for repairs brought us back..." Kirkland shrugged. "I thought I'd take advantage of this unexpected return to come see you and... ask if I could take you out to dinner... just the two of us..." He smiled.

She smiled back. "As friends?"

"If you'd like..."

She nodded. "Sure! Just give me a few minutes to finish up here and get cleaned off..."

"Before you do..." He reached out behind her, picked a red giant bergonia and handed it to her. "For you..." He smiled his brightest smile at her.

She returned that smile as she took the flower. "I see you haven't lost your charm..."

"Only around you..." he said softly. Then he dared reach out and kiss her on her lips. She accepted that kiss from him.

"Do you do that to all the females you know, or only to me?" She teased.

"Only to those who are special to me..."

"Flattery'll get you nowhere..." She said as she walked over to the front of the greenhouse where she took off the apron and work gloves.

Captain Kirkland then escorted her to the ladies' room where she would get cleaned up and make herself presentable for the night on the town.

She had brought a female's overcoat with her to work that morning, asshe knew the coming night would be cooler. Captain Kirkland contacted the Enterprise and asked the Quartermaster to have his black trench coat beamed down to him to not only ward off the cold, but not look too out of place next to his date for the evening.

"Where shall we go? That old place again?" She asked as they walked out arm in arm from the front doors of the Institute.

"Why don't I let YOU decide this time?" Kirkland said quickly, not exactly knowing WHERE or WHAT "that old place" was.

"My! So courteous tonight!" she smiled as she drew herself closer to him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, holding her close, as they walked out towards the downtown area of Francescantown.

* * *

Meanwhile, in downtown Francescanville, the remaining landing party were sitting down to dinner. They had chosen a buffet restaurant that caters to flattooth and sharptooth alike. That way, everybody could have everything they'd want in a meal. The rainbow faces and flatooths had their fill of all kinds of salads, fruits and vegetables; while Chomper the sharptooth could have meat. He sampled a steak dish, and thought it tasted a lot better than the one he was given on the rainbow faces' shuttlepod. Briank told Chomper it was probably because what he was eating was "the real deal, and not just a resequenced protein concoction."

Chomper also sampled some poultry marinated in a honey barbecue sauce, and thought it was really delightful. As he was eating, he noticed that Cera was eyeing him again. He flashed his sharptooth smile showing his sauce stained sharp teeth at her, and she just shook her head and looked away. Chomper couldn't help but giggle at himself, and Cera muttered under her breath for him to "shut up!".

Chomper also sampled a beef and noodle dish that was mostly set out for omnivores, like Ruby. There was some concern that Chomper wouldn't be able to digest the noodles, but he said it didn't bother him at all. For dessert, he had a chocolate sundae, and allowed Petrie to take the cherry off of the top of it again. He made sure he ate it slowly this time, remembering full well his "brain freeze" episode.

The Saurians were amazed to see groups of flattooth and sharptooth sitting together. Not only that, but there also seemed to be flattooth/sharptooth, or rainbow face/Saurian couples, sitting together and enjoying their meal. When Little Foot asked Briank about it, Briank simply said that this was a result of the "peaceful coexistence of the different species that is evident in this universe."

Like their universe, this one was based on an economy where everyone worked to better improve themselves, and all of society; therefore, no currency was needed; and nobody gave them a second look when they simply walked out without "paying".

* * *

Captain Kirkland and Jenna were sitting in the restaurant in the downtown area of Francescanville. They had chosen a restaurant that specialized in pasta dishes, and Kirkland ordered a bottle of red wine to go with their meal.

After pouring out a glass for Jenna, Captain Kirkland poured a glass for himself.

"A toast!" Kirkland announced as he raised his wine glass. "Here's to... good times... and good friends..." He smiled at her.

Jenna raised her own glass. "Good times... good friends..." She smiled back at him as she klinked her glass with his, then they both took a sip.

"So... what have you been up to while I was gone?" Kirkland asked in conversation.

"Same old... Just taking care of that greenhouse of mine, and filling in whenever they need an extra tour guide for the exhibits... And you? Anything interesting in this vast galaxy of ours?"

"Nothing worth reporting..." Kirkland simply answered.

Jenna simply giggled.

"What?" Kirkland asked.

"I don't know... After we broke up, I kept picturing you coming home with an alien girlfriend you just met maybe two weeks before, and then you'd both go see my father and ask him to marry you..."

Kirkland chuckled. "Actually, there hasn't been that many girlfriends since we... broke up... Besides, your father seems to think that we're made for each other..."

Jenna sighed in frustration. "My father thinks I should marry you and that we'd have ten kids together!"

Kirkland chuckled again.

"But it was a mutual decision... I mean, we're both career rainbow faces... You have your starship and I have my greenhouse... We both decided that marriage and family were out of the question... Right?"

"I guess so..." Kirkland smiled. "As far as offsprings go, your brother's already taken care of THAT..."

Jenna looked confused. "My brother???"

"Yes... Your older brother? Who's been married five years now, and who has three kids with his wife?"

"What are you talking about, Jarrok??? I'm an only child, you know that!"

"Must be my imagination..." Kirkland said quickly.

"I'll say..." Jenna mused.

"As for us mutually deciding to break up... I don't know... I'm beginning to think that was a mistake..."

"Hold on a minute! Why do you care all of a sudden?" Jenna asked in confusion.

"Why shouldn't I?"

"When we decided to call it quits two months ago, you just beamed up to your ship without even saying 'goodbye'; as if you never really CARED about me! And now, you suddenly reappear, invite me out to dinner, treat me like I was some princess; and I see this look of longing in your eyes... A look that was never there before... Almost as if... you're a different male... like you're not the same Jarrok Tiburon Kirkland I've known all this time..."

"People change..." Kirkland softly said, still smiling brightly. "Why can't you?" he asked rhetorically.

Jenna got a twinkle in her eye as she smiled slowly. They both moved closer together and shared a slow, passionate kiss. The world around them seemed to dissapear until it was only them, and they savoured this moment for what seemed like an eternity.

* * *

The sun had already gone down by the time they left the restaurant, so it was determined that it was too late to visit Oakville at this time of the day. Instead, the rainbow faces decided to show the young Saurians some of the night life in Francescanville. Little Foot was a little bit dissapointed at not being able to see this Saurian community today, but Briank reassured him that they'd make a point to show him the town first thing tomorrow morning, to which Little Foot was looking forward to.

They were walking down the street of the downtown area. The young Saurians were amazed at seeing the large amount of people still bustling about at a time of the day where they'd be asleep in their nests in The Great Valley by now.

"Well, it may have to do with the artificial lighting that you see all around you..." Briank said as he gestured towards the lamp posts all around them. "It's as though the bright circle, or what we call 'Solaria', was always shining down upon us..."

"That would make a lot of sense! It would! It would!" Ducky commented.

Her big brother Spike warbled "uh huh" and nodded his agreement.

Yolanda suddenly stopped the group. "Briank, look!" she said as she pointed towards a restaurant across the street.

Briank's eyes grew wide when he saw what Yolanda saw. "Why, that's Captain Kirkland... and... I don't believe it! It's Jenna!! Admiral Foster's daughter..."

"But obviously NOT the Jenna Foster of OUR universe!" Yolanda said.

"Do you think Mr. Kark knows?" Briank asked his wife.

"He probably doesn't..." Yolanda answered.

Briank sighed. "So much for staying well away from people we know in this universe... In any case, we shouldn't stay here, in case he sees us!"

"I don't think we need to worry about that, dear." Yolanda said. "He seems to only have eyes for HER..."

She was right. Briank saw that Kirkland and Jenna were savouring their passionate embrace. Yolanda got a "love is so beautiful" look upon her face as she watched the two rainbow faces kiss each other slowly. "Come on, before he DOES see us!" Briank said as he grabbed her by the arm to lead her down the street.

What nobody noticed, however, was that Little Foot had a look of anger on his facial features. Since nobody saw it, nobody asked him about it. It was a good thing, too; because Little Foot probably would've exploded in their face.

The group walked around for another hour or so, taking in all of the sights and sounds of downtown Francescanville. Then, when the two rainbow faces noticed that the young Saurians were starting to get a little tired, Briank signaled the ship to ask to get beamed aboard.

Sleeping quarters were prepared for them. They were two rooms located side by side. As per the Quartermaster's orders, the boys would share one room while the girls would share the other. Although they were used to sleeping together often times in one group, Briank and Yolanda said that the only time males and females would share sleeping quarters on the Enterprise was when they were actually married, like they were; and as such, they had to obey the rules of the ship. Everyone reluctantly agreed. Both rainbow faces said their goodnights after seeing them all inside their rooms.

In both rooms, before falling asleep, the conversations revolved around what they've learned and seen today, including the Captain and the "female rainbow face grown up" kissing each other.

On the girls' side, Ruby commented that "if she ever met a male fast runner who was nice to her, she wouldn't mind if that nice fast runner who was nice to her kissed her"; while Ducky thought that she'd be "delighted if a boy swimmer kisseded her"; and Cera simply said that she "would never allow a boy threehorn to kiss her, no matter how hard he tried". To which both Ducky and Ruby sighed and said "Oh, Cera!"

On the boys' side, Little Foot and Chomper said they didn't quite know how they'd feel about kissing a girl longneck and sharptooth respectively; Petrie said that he'd be "scared at kissing a girl flyer like that"-a comment to which the three others laughed heartily at- while Spike seemed to daydream at the thought of kissing a girl spiketail like the way he saw "the grown up rainbow faces did".

When everyone was tired enough, they turned the lights of their quarters out by voice command exactly like the way Mr. And Mrs. Rainbow Face showed them to do, and went to sleep thinking of the big day they were going to have tomorrow. But Little Foot had something special in mind for tomorrow. His longneck brain had hatched a clever plan, and he was going to put that plan in action the first chance he got.


	8. Chapter 7 Logic And Illogic

**CHAPTER 7**

**LOGIC AND ILLOGIC**

That evening, Kirkland and Mr. Kark were in Recreation Room 3 playing a game at one of the pool tables that was there. Kirkland played pool every once in a while, and the big Vulkadian had made himself a veritable master at the game; yet Kirkland had the knack of leaving diffcult shots for the Vulkadian to make, which would've made anyone else feel irritated; but Kark always suppressed his irritation and just played his shots the best way he knew how.

On this occasion, there was nobody else in the rec room, as the hour was late; and most of the crew on board were either asleep in their quarters, or in their quarters burning the midnight oil before going to bed.

"So you're sure about this, Kark? With some 'fine tweaking', we can return back to our universe without too much diffculty?"

The Vulkadian nodded. "Affirmative. It is a simple matter of recreating the accident which sent us here in the first place. We just need an ion storm, and my instruments show that there will be one brewing within the next 2 days just outside of Merkuria."

"But what you've laid out for us must've taken some pretty complex calculations?" Kirkland asked.

Kark nodded and raised an eyeridge. "Indeed..."

"And you were able to work all this out in your head?"

Kark nodded again. "I did..."

Kirkland chuckled. "You never cease to amaze me..."

"Nor I myself..." Kark said with a raise of his eyeridges.

"It's your shot..." Kirkland said as he gestured towards the pool table.

"All right... You have... 'snookered'... me again... however, I still have a small opening on the 11 ball... in the corner pocket..."

Kark played the shot and was able to sink the ball. As he did, he looked up at Kirkland, who groaned inwardly and muttered "Damn it!".

Kark raised his eyeridge again.

"But you're absolutely sure that it'll work!?" Kirkland asked in astonishment.

Kark nodded. "I believe so..."

A look of sadness suddenly spread over Kirkland's facial features when he realized what he'd be losing once he returned to his own universe.

Noticing this, Kark approached Kirkland. "Captain? Is something wrong?"

"I...don't quite know how to tell you this, but..." Kirkland began as he looked away from his Vulkadian friend. "I saw Jenna today..."

"Jenna??? You mean Admiral Foster's daughter?"

Kirkland nodded slowly. "Yes..."

"Captain, I must point out that..."

"She was EXACTLY like the Jenna I knew back in OUR universe... EXACTLY... right down to her job as a Botanist..." He then turned to face Kark. "And you know what else I realized? She still has FEELINGS for me, Kark! And... I still have feelings for HER... If only you could... FEEL what I feel, you'd know how difficult a decision this is!"

Kark remained silent for a few moments, not quite knowing what to say to his commanding officer... and his friend... Finally, he found the words that would bring common sense to this whole situation.

"Captain, I may not fully understand the emotion of love, but I DO understand LOGIC... Logic dictates that we cannot stay here, simply because we do not BELONG here... The Jenna Foster of this universe is NOT the Jenna Foster that you know and... love... and the feelings that you say she feels are not for you, but for the Captain Kirkland of THIS universe. The Captain Kirkland who is currently in the Beta Quadrant commanding the Enterprise of THIS universe, and will inevitably return to this world, which is it's home base. But for YOU to take the place of THAT Captain Kirkland would be MOST illogical..."

Kirkland sighed heavily and lowered his head. He was almost to the point of tears, but he didn't want to show that in front of the Vulkadian. Finally, he raised his head to look up at his friend and nodded. "Of course... you're right as usual, Mr. Kark..."

"Then you know what it is we have to do..." Kark simply said.

Kirkland nodded again, went to place the cue stick he had in his hands back on the wall rack. "Good night!" he said to his Vulkadian friend and just walked out of the room. The sliding doors hissing as they opened and closed for him.

In the deserted hallway, though, Kirkland couldn't hold back his tears. They started flowing, and the sobbing he had suppressed all this time couldn't he held back any longer. He leaned against the left wall with a hand to his face, as he couldn't stop his crying fit.

* * *

"Eventually, I would regain my composure, as any good Captain would... and carry on." Kirkland said in his personal log recorder. "Kark was right, of course, but... It sure felt good to see her again... I realized then and there what I had given up back on Terra Beta: The chance at a more permanent relationship with a female rainbow face I never knew I cared about so much... until I met up with this... alternate Jenna Foster..." Kirkland smiled to himself.

"Meanwhile, both Lieutenants Riggs continued exploring the alternate Terra along with the young Saurians under their charge. They had made plans to visit a Saurian community called Oakville the next morning. Everything was fine there, until that young longneck... Little Foot, I think his name was... did somthing really foolish..."

* * *

The next morning, Briank and Yolanda were in front of the kids' sleeping quarters at 0900 sharp, as they said they would be.

Yolanda rang the buzzer to the girls' quarters. "Come in!" she heard Ruby say from the inside.

"Rise and shine, girls!" Yolanda said as the sliding doors opened and she walked in. Cera could be heard groaning just before the doors closed again.

Inside the boys' sleeping quarters, Little Foot, Chomper and Petrie were all huddled together on the bed, snoozing away; while Spike chose to sleep on the floor.

The sound of the door buzzer stirred Little Foot to life, but he was still too groggy to even respond. The door buzzer rang again, a little longer this time. "Helloo-oooo... Anybody alive in there?" Briank's voice was heard saying from outside.

"Come in..." Little Foot said, yawning.

The sliding doors slid open. "Good morning, kids!" Briank said as he walked in.

Little Foot yawned again. "Morning... Has the bright circle risen already?" he asked sleepily.

Briank chuckled. "The bright circle rose maybe an hour ago..."

"Oh..." Little Foot said as he tried to shake the remnants of deep sleep out of his head. Meanwhile, the other boys were slowly stirring to life.

"It hard to see if bright circle rose from in here..." Petrie said, as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"We would've let you sleep a little bit longer..." Briank said. "but we've got a big day ahead of us, so it's rise and shine!"

"Okay..." Little Foot simply said.

"If you boys want to make use of the sonic shower that's in the bathroom, you're more than welcome to..."

"Sonic shower??? Is that anything like a waterfall?" Little Foot asked.

Briank smiled. "It uses the same principals, except you don't get wet..."

"How can you get clean if you don't get wet?" Chomper asked.

"You'll see..." Briank smiled as he gestured towards the bathroom.

Chomper dared try this "sonic shower" Mr. Rainbow Face spoke about.

"Just say 'activate' once you walk in, and it'll turn itself on..."

Chomper did as he was told. "Wow! It's amazing! It feels as if water's falling all over me, but I'm not getting wet!! You rainbow faces sure have remarkable tak-na-low-gee..." He commented.

Briank giggled. "Glad you like it!"

"Can we give it a try?" Little Foot asked.

Spike let loose an eager warble.

"Of course!" Briank said with a grin.

"What about you, Petrie?" Little Foot asked.

The little flyer looked scared. "Me no know! It not hurt flyers?" Petrie asked Briank.

"Don't worry, Petrie! You'll LOVE it!" Chomper said before Briank could answer.

"Don't take too long, though! The sooner we get going, the more we'll be able to see and do today..." Briank said as he moved over to the room's replicator and produced himself a cup of coffee.

* * *

As soon as everybody had taken care of their morning business, they all went to the rec room that was on their deck for breakfast. Briank and Yolanda didn't put on their rank shirts today, as this was considered an "off day" for them.

Contrary to the previous times, however, it was bustling with activity as a lot of rainbow faces who were on board were just starting their day. The young dinos received polite smiles, nods and "hello"s as they walked past. There were even some rainbow faces actually playing pool on the two tables that were there!

Little Foot was the first to notice that there were no Saurians present. When he asked Briank if there were any that served on board, he just shook his head and said "no". When Little Foot asked why, Briank simply raised his shoulders and said: "Well, as you've learned in the library yesterday, not many Saurians chose to serve on our starships, but there are a few... They're just not on this particular ship." He smiled.

"So Kark's the only... a-lee-aahhn on board?" Little Foot asked.

"He is, dearie." Yolanda said in answer.

* * *

After breakfast, the group went down to the transporter room for the beam down. Briank gave the coordinates to the Transporter Chief. Again, the landing party had to beam down in two separate groups, as the transporter pad could not hold more than six different people at a time; thus making six separate transport patterns, which was all it's memory banks could hold.

The landing party materialized in front of a huge sign that said: WELCOME TO OAKVILLE! WHERE FAMILY AND SAFETY COME FIRST!

"There's your family again, Little Foot!" Cera said, for indeed, directly above the slogan was that snapshot of Little Foot's family in this alternate universe.

Little Foot glared angrily at Cera.

Briank cleared his throat. "Let's not rehash that subject, shall we?"

The group followed the road that led to the top of a hill that was overlooking the valley where the town was located. Everything looked vaguely familiar to all of the young Saurians, but it was only when they reached the top of the hill and looked down into the valley that they all gasped.

Chomper was the first to comment. "It looks just like The Great Valley!"

"It IS The Great Valley! It is! It IS!" Ducky said as well.

"You are essentially correct, my dear!" Yolanda said. "What you see before you is, in fact, The Great Valley..."

"Only it goes by a different name, in this universe..." Briank said.

"Really?" Little Foot asked.

Briank nodded. "Here, it's known as 'Lithium Valley'; because of the lithium mine located roughly 25 klicks North West of here..."

"Lithium mine???" Cera asked in confusion.

"Yes! If you recall, our starships get their power from lithium crystals. The very same crystals that come from that mine..." Yolanda said.

"Most of the Saurians and rainbow faces who live here work there..." Briank said.

"And in exchange for their labour contribution, they enjoy all the rights and privileges of living in this town!" Yolanda finished with a smile.

"We learned all that at the library yesterday..." Briank admitted.

"Fascinating..." Cera allowed herself to say.

The alternate Great Valley they saw was, indeed, fascinating! The shapes of the surrounding mountains were all the same; except that the valley itself was quite different. Instead of the lush green fields they're used to seeing, the gang all saw rows upon rows of rectangular shaped houses and artifical caves. They guessed that the rectangular structures were the rainbow face dwellings, and that the caves were the Saurian dwellings. It took them a few minutes to take all of this in, and just admire the organized beauty of it.

"So where to now?" Little Foot asked.

"I think the first place we need to go is the town's City Hall... I think they have a Visitor's Information office that could be most useful..." Briank answered.

With that, he led the group to that very place.

* * *

A short time later, the group arrived at the rustic looking City Hall complex. The first thing that struck them about the place was the marble statue of Zakari Cochrane shaking the hand of the leader of the first Vulkadian expedition to land on Terra, according to the brass plaque that was at the foot of the statue.

It didn't take them long to find the Visitor's Information bureau located inside the City Hall's main building. The helpful female flyer attendant showed them a data pad that spoke about the impressive Oakville Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

"Now THAT looks like a place worth seeing!" Briank commented. "Wouldn't you agree, kids!?"

The young Saurians all said and nodded their approval with some enthusiasm.

The attendant also showed them info on some other choice sights and landmarks of the area. Briank said they'd try to make a point of seeing those sights throughout the day, but said that their first stop would be the museum that was in town, and because it was the closest stop on their itinerary.

When they arrived at the place, they signed themselves up for a guided tour, which lasted for about an hour and a half, then the group was told to "feel free and walk around for a bit" by the tour guide, who was a dynamic and joyous rainbow face female.

"All right! I think we can trust all of you enough to let you walk around freely, as I know you all want to see different things." Briank told the group.

The group all nodded and said that was the case.

"Me think me stay with Little Foot." Petrie said in a rather scared tone of voice.

"No, Petrie!" Little Foot said.

"B... but why not?" Petrie asked.

"Because... I wanna see the rocks and volcanoes exhibit again, way at the other end of the museum..." Little Foot said quickly.

"Oh... Yeah... me not wanna see THAT again... Me wanna see... a-vee-a-shion exhibit again!" Petrie admitted.

"You would!" Cera humpfed.

"You can stick with us, Petrie." Ducky said, indicating herself and her big adoptive brother. "We would not mind seeing that ex-hi-bi-shun again. Then we want to see the am-phee-bee-an natural history expo again! Yep, yep, YEP!"

Spike nodded and warbled "uh huh".

"Okay... Me not mind seeing ancient swimmers again..." Petrie admitted as he flew up to Spike's back.

"I think I'd like to see the 'Sharptooth Contribution to Society' expo again!" Chomper said with a smile.

"What about you, Cera and Ruby?" Yolanda asked the two girls.

"I think the 'History of Space Exploration' exhibit would be my choice, as I still haven't learned much about space, and would like to learn more about it." Ruby said.

Yolanda nodded and turned to Cera.

"Weeellll..." Cera pondered. "That lithium mining expo would be MY choice..."

"All right, kids! We'll meet back here at the entrance to the museum in about two hours. All right?" Briank ordered.

"What are YOU going to see?" Cera asked the rainbow face couple.

"Oooh... A little of this, and a little of that..." Yolanda said.

"We want to see EVERYTHING..." Briank admitted. "But don't go wandering off too far!" he said as she and Yolanda departed towards the 'Land And See Mammals' exhibit, leaving the kids to their own devices.

"We won't!" the kids said at once.

With that, the group separated. Little Foot waited until he was well out of sight from everybody before putting the plan he thought up last night into motion. After assuring himself that nobody in his group was watching him, he slipped out of the museum building and headed down the street towards his intended destination.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the Federation Headquarters in Francescanville, Admiral Foster was working in his office when the buzzer to the sliding doors of his office sounded. "Come!"

The sliding doors opened to reveal his smiling daughter.

"JENNA!" he happily said.

"Hi, daddy!"

He got up to give his daughter a big hug. "How are you, dear?" He asked her.

"Just fine, daddy!" she said as she moved to sit in the office chair just across from his desk.

"How's work at the greenhouse?"

"Couldn't be better! But do you know who surprised me last night?"

"Who?"

"Jarrok!"

The Admiral's face lit up. "REALLY!?"

Jenna smiled and nodded.

"What was he like?" he asked eagerly.

"Well, he looked exactly like I remembered him last time, but..." Jenna hesitated.

"But what?" the Admiral pressed.

"I don't know... He seemed... different, somehow... More caring... more romantic... Like he wasn't the same male I knew before we broke up... He came to see you yesterday afternoon, right?"

The Admiral nodded. "He DID come see me for a couple of hours, yes..."

"And you didn't notice anything... unusual... about him?"

The Admiral shook his head. "No... Why?"

"I don't know, it's..." She stopped and eyed her father. "You wouldn't have anything to DO with this, would you?"

The Admiral appeared aloof. "I have no idea what you're talking about..."

"Daddy!!?" She glared at her father.

The Admiral sighed. "All right! I suggested that he go see you, because you were anxious to get together with him again..."

Jenna groaned in frustration. "Daddy, you've GOT to stop trying to MARRY me with every young male rainbow face you know!!"

"What!? Are you saying you don't like Jarrok!?"

"I didn't say THAT, daddy! Maybe someday, I WILL marry. I may even marry Jarrok! Who knows!? But you've got to let me make my OWN choice on the matter!!"

"I REALIZE that, Jenna! I just don't want you to miss out on what's most important in life!"

"Like your grandkids?" She said as she crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Isn't that what any good parent wants???" He asked as he spread his hands out.

Jenna stayed silent for a few moments.

When the Admiral saw that she wasn't going to say anything else, he decided to change the subject. "ANYWAY, what did you two do last night?"

"Weeeelll... After we left the Institute, we went downtown to Ghatelli's Restaurant..."

"The pasta place!!? OH! Me and your mother used to LOVE going there... How was it?"

"It was great! And Jarrok was... well... Like I said: He wasn't the same male I used to know... Don't you find that strange?"

The Admiral shook his head. "Not really... People change all the time. Maybe Jarrok's decided to focus more on his relationship with you than on his career; which is not a BAD thing, in my mind. You could stand to LEARN a thing or two from him..."

"No! It's MORE than that, daddy! It's..." She stopped her sentence, lost in thought. Then she laughed. "Maybe it's my imagination..." She laughed again. "Funny thing, too: He actually thought I had a brother... Can you believe that???"

The colour went out of Admiral Foster's facial features. "What did you say!!?"

"Jarrok actually believed I had an older brother, who was already married and had three kids..."

Admiral Foster grew paler, and a look of fright spread across his factial features as he turned away from his daughter.

"Daddy? Daddy, what's wrong!?" Jenna asked in a worried tone.

He pressed a button on his intercom. "Hold all my calls, Myriam!"

"Yes, sir!" came the voice of his Secretary.

"Daddy, what's going on!?" Jenna asked again in an even more worried tone.

He got up from his seat and turned away from his daughter. "Jenna... you've always believed that you were an only child, did you?"

"Of course! Why shouldn't I? You and mom only had ME!"

"That's not entirely true..." Admiral Foster said as he slowly turned to face his daughter. "You see... You DID have an older brother... once..."

"What!?" Jenna asked in surprise.

"You were not our first and only hatched child... You were our SECOND... Your brother..." Admiral Foster cut his sentence short in order to stiffle back his sadness. "died a month before you hatched from your own egg... He had a... congenital heart defect... There was nothing the Doctors could do to save him... The illness was too severe... They gave him only a year to live... He died the day he reached ten months old..."

Jenna sniffed as her eyes got wet. She looked at her father with those sad eyes. "Why was I never told about this!?" she asked in a sad whisper.

"After Brenk died... that's what we named him..." the Admiral began in a shaky voice. "Your mother and I vowed never to tell anyone else about what happened... not even you... because it was just too painful... But after you hatched from your egg..." The Admiral stopped his sentence to regain his composure, as he was to the point of sobbing. "...and the Doctors said you were perfectly healthy, we were so overjoyed that Brenk became just a memory..."

"Oh, daddy..." Jenna said with great sadness, then she began sobbing uncontrollably.

"Oh, honey! Come here..." Admiral Foster cooed to his daughter as he took her in a comforting embrace. "It's okay, honey dear! It's okay!! Daddy's here..."

Jenna continued sobbing for what seemed like an eternity in her father's arms. He sobbed with her, as the pain of keeping a dark secret for so many years was released.

"Maybe keeping this secret from you was a mistake, but your mother didn't want to break that vow; and she took that secret to her grave. But no more... No more..."

After a while, they both stopped sobbing, but still kept hold of their father/daughter embrace.

"But... daddy... How could Jarrok know? How could be HONESTLY believe that my brother was still alive... and MARRIED???" Jenna finally asked as she regained her composure. "Did you know his family back then?"

"Come to think of it, NO! I only met his father a short time AFTER, and we never told HIM; so he couldn't've known ANY of this, unless..." Admiral Foster cut his sentence short as he got that pale look of horror again.

"Daddy? Daddy, what is it?" Jenna asked.

"A horrifying thought just occured to me..." he answered.

"What?" She pressed.

He grabbed his daughter by the arms. "Jenna... are you familiar with the shapeshifters of Atreides 4, or the android replicants of Harkonnen 7?"

"Yeah..." Jenna admitted. "But they're non hostile... aren't they?"

"Yes... but that could change radically..."

"What are you suggesting??? That Jarrok could be a shapeshifter, or a replicant???"

The Admiral nodded. "It could explain why the Enterprise suddenly cut it's mission short and came back here..."

"But... what about the crew?"

"They're probably unaware of what's going on..."

"But... NO! No! It CAN'T be!! I was WITH him last night, daddy!! I KISSED him, and he felt quite real to me!"

"Even the android replicants can duplicate everything, right down to the odour of his musk!"

"So what are looking at here, a prelude to an invasion???"

"It's possible... But there's only ONE WAY to find out!"

The Admiral moved back in his seat behind his desk and pressed his intercom button. "Myriam, put me through to the Enterprise!"

"Right away, sir!" his Secretary said.

"Enterprise, Lieutenant Urbina here..." said the voice of the Communications Officer a few moments later.

* * *

Little Foot hurried down the street towards his intended destination. He didn't quite know where to go, of course, but he was able to obtain directions from a nice rainbow face police officer wearing a Federation rank shirt. The Federation not only provided the Space Fleet and starships, but also most of the security force for Terra.

It took about an hour an a half to reach the street where his destination was, and a few more minutes to find the cave dwelling. He never would've found the actual place were it not for the huge female longneck hanging up palm leaves to dry in the yard. Little Foot gasped when he saw her. He recognized her instantly as his mother, and he remembered her exactly as she was before she died! But here, she was still alive and well!!

"MOOOOM!!!" Little Foot cried out as he started running towards her.

The female longneck was startled by the cries of the young male longneck from across the street. She looked at him strangely as he was running up.

"Mom! MOM!" Little Foot cried again as he ran up to the gated fence that blocked off the front yard. "Mom! It's me! Little Foot!!"

The female longneck didn't move. Little Foot thought it strange that she didn't run up to him, like any mother would. "I'm sorry, young male. You must have me confused with somebody else..." She finally said.

Her voice was exactly as he remembered it. Soft, tender, caring; yet slightly confused at the cries he was sending to her. "Mom! Don't you recognize me? I'm Little Foot! Your son!!"

"What's going on out here?" came the voice of a male longneck as he emerged from the cave.

"I don't know, dear! This young male longneck somehow think I'm his..."

"DAD!" Little Foot cried. "It's me! Little Foot!!"

"Get out of here, kid!! Before I call Security!" the big male longneck shouted as he tried to shoosh Little Foot away.

"Dad..." Little Foot muttered with great sadness.

"What's all the ruckus out here?" came the voice of another male longneck as he came out. This one appeared a lot older than the others.

"I don't know, dig daddy! I think we got a confused kid out here!" the younger male said to him. The older had a look of surprise once he saw Little Foot.

"Grandpa..." Little Foot mouthed.

"I told you to GET OUT OF HERE, kid!!" the younger male shouted again.

"No, Bron! WAIT!" the older male said. "Look closely at him..." Bron did as his father-in-law said. "That's exactly what Lesik would've looked like, had he reached that boy's age..."

Then Bron got the same look of surprise as the older male. "You're right! The resemblance in uncanny! But that CAN'T be Lesik! Lesik is DEAD, you know that!"

"Are you sure about that, daddy?" The female longneck asked the older male.

"Yes, dear! Look at him closely..."

She did as he asked, and gasped. "By the Primal Egg, it's TRUE! It WOULD look like my son!!"

"I AM your son!!" Little Foot said. "And who is 'Lesik'!? I'm not 'Lesik'! I'm LITTLE FOOT!"

"What's going ON here!!?" the female asked in confusion.

"That's what I'm about to find out..." The older male said, then moved to approach Little Foot.

"Hello, little one!" the male said as he lowered his head down to face Little Foot. "You seem to have lost your way. Why are you here?"

Little Foot suddenly realized that he had made a big mistake. This family that he was now facing was not HIS family. The boy longneck they probably had died a long time ago. He could've ran away, back to the museum, where the rest of the gang were probably waiting for him. Yet he stayed, and decided to answer this big male longneck, who was so much like his own grandfather is.

"Where I come from, I had a family... just like yours... Some of them are dead or missing now..." The elder longneck got a look of surprise on his facial features. "I don't know why I came here... I thought that... seeing a family that was so much like mine would make me forget about what I lost... But now I realize that I was wrong... I'm really sorry..."

Little Foot looked really sad as he turned to walk away.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the museum, the entire landing party converged near the front doors at the appointed time. It didn't take long, however, for everyone to notice that somebody was missing.

Briank was the first to speak up. "Where's Little Foot?" he asked, looking around.

"Me not see him." Petrie said with a shrug.

"I don't think ANYBODY has." Cera also said looking around.

Briank then noticed a male flyer security guard close to the front door. "Stay here!" he told the group as he walked up to him.

"Excuse me..." he began. "Did you happen to see a young male longneck walking around recently?"

"As a matter of fact, I did!" the male flyer said in a deep Britanian accent. "He walked out of here about two hours ago. Looked to be in quite a hurry, too!"

"Uh oh..." Briank muttered to himself. "Thank you." he said to the guard, who nodded, then returned to the group.

"Little Foot's gone!" He told them. "He left the musuem roughly two hours ago..."

"Where could he have gone?" Ruby asked.

"I think I know..." Briank suddenly realized. "Come on! We must get to a security shuttlepod. HURRY!" he said as he led the group outside.

"Bye, kids! Thank for visiting!" the male flyer guard said to them smiling as they hurried on past.

"Bye!" said most of the kids as they passed. Petrie, however, froze at the foot of the sliding transparent doors and did a double take on the guard, who was already walking away with his winged arms behind his back.

"What is it, Petrie?" Ducky asked when she noticed his stunned expression.

"Me think that flyer was UNCLE PTERANO!" Petrie said.

"Huh???" Ducky said in surprise.

"Hmmm... Come to think of it, he DID look awful familiar." Cera said. "Maybe he WAS! Fascinating!"

"Come on, kids!" Briank called out to them, prompting the kids to hurry up and join the rest of the group.

* * *

"Wait!" the elder male longneck called to Little Foot, prompting him to stop.

"I'm curious... Tell me about where you come from... and your family..." the elder longneck said as he lowered his head down over the fence to face Little Foot.

"Daddy, don't waste your time with this kid!" the female longneck said.

"Quiet!" he said to her harshly. "Go on... I'm listening..." he then said, turning back to Little Foot.

"Well..." Little Foot began. "Where I come from... it's pretty far away... and definately not like this... My family... looked a lot like yours... I mean... almost EXACTLY like yours!"

"I see... THEN what happened?" the elder male longneck asked.

"My mother died when I was very young, and my father went missing..." Little Foot looked sad.

"I'm sorry to hear that..." the elder male said.

"But I was being looked after by my grandparents..."

"Did your grandmother look like me?" an elder female longneck suddenly said as she came beside the elder male.

"Grandma..." Little Foot muttered. "Uuuhhh... I mean... YES! She looked EXACTLY like you, ma'am!"

"I can understand why you would be confused, dearie!" she said as she leaned her head down to face him. Little Foot suddenly had a feeling of homesickness. How he longed to just rub his cheek with this big female longneck, who was so much like his own grandmother; but he knew that she'd might not like that, if he did.

"Yeah..." he simply said, looking sad. "But as long as we're satisfying each other's curiosity, tell me about your grandson..."

The younger female longneck took over. "He would've been about your age, had he lived..."

"H... h-h-how did he die?" Little Foot asked.

"Congenital heart failure..." the female's husband said.

"Huh???" Little Foot asked in confusion.

The elder male chuckled. "What my son-in-law meant was that he had a weak heart... He only survived a few months after he hatched."

"Mommy..." came a meek voice at the foot of the younger female left foreleg.

"It's okay, honey! He's not gonna hurt you..." the female said reassuringly. "This is Licia... Lesik's twin sister..." the female said in introduction.

"Hello..." Little Foot smiled. The little female longneck leaned close against her mother, looking very shy and frightened. Little Foot noticed how much she looked like him! He thought if he had a sister, she'd look exactly like this girl standing before him.

"What about NOW..." the elder male longneck asked. "If you're so far away from what's left of your family, do you have somebody to look after you? A guardian, or..."

Little Foot looked to the ground. "Yes, I have a couple of grown up rainbow faces looking out for me... and I'm also here with my friends... We were visiting the museum, and... I kinda ran away from there... They're probably looking for me right now..."

With that, the sound of a shuttlepod coming in for a landing made everybody look up. "Looks like they found you, young lad!" the elder male said as he saw the markings of a Federation Security shuttlepod on the side of it.

As soon as the shuttlepod landed, Briank opened up the hatch to look outside. "Little Foot!" he cried as he stepped outside and hurried up to him. Yolanda was not far behind.

"Oh! Thank goodness you're all right!" Briank said as he came up to place his hands on Little Foot's shoulders.

"You had us deeply worried, young one!" Yolanda said.

Little Foot looked down to the ground. "I'm sorry..."

"It's okay..." Briank smiled as he patted Little Foot's cheek.

Then he turned to face the longneck family. "We're all very sorry for this... This young longneck's far away from home, and he's somewhat confused..."

"It's quite all right, sir!" the young male longneck said. "Just get him home safely, okay?"

Briank nodded. "We will!"

"Yes, it was nice meeting you, young lad!" the elder male said as he leaned down to face Little Foot again. "I hope you make it back to wherever it is you belong soon..."

Little Foot smiled up at the male longneck. "Me, too..."

"Come on!" Briank said as he ushered Little Foot to the shuttlepod. It fired up it's engines as everybody got inside.

As soon as everybody was in, Cera began her tyrade. "Why in the name of The Primal Egg would you go and DO something like this!!? I mean... Why would you HONESTLY believe that THAT longneck family would see you as one of their own!!? That was really STUPID, Little Foot!!!"

"HUSH!" Briank hissed at her. "He feels bad enough as it is! Don't add insult to injury!!"

Cera just growled as she looked away.

"Are you all right?" Briank asked as he turned his attention to Little Foot.

"I guess so..." Little Foot sadly said.

"Cera was right, you know... That was INCREDIBLY foolish, and you had us all deeply worried..."

"I know... It's just that... I thought they'd be exactly like my real parents were... and grandma and grandpa..." Little Foot sniffed as tears start flowing. "And I miss them very MUCH..."

Little Foot started sobbing uncontrollably as Briank took him in a conmforting hug. "It okay, Little Foot... let it out... Let it AAAALL out! You'll feel much better afterwards... I know your mother is dead... Has been for a long time, and NOTHING you can say or do can EVER bring her back!"

Then he relinquished his hold to face Little Foot. "But take comfort with the knowledge that she's up there... in The Great Beyond... watching over you... And who knows? You may meet up with your father again someday... Right?"

Little Foot continued sniffing and whimpering for a bit, then he acknowledged Briank's kind words with a nod.

Briank smiled and patted his shoulder. "That's the spirit, kid! You must be brave!!" he said as he dried his tears.

Eventually, Little Foot would be made to feel better. When he was up to it enough, everyone continued with the sightseeing itinerary they had planned for the day.

* * *

Before moving on to other points of interest elsewhere, Cera wanted to make another stop in the Oakville area. During her visit to the museum, she happened to have seen a recent panoramic photograph of a group of workers from the lithium mine, and she recognized one of the images as her father; or an alternate version of her father.

Cera wanted to get a closer look at him, but not the way Little Foot did with his alternate family. They all went up to the top of the hill where Cera was given a pair of binoculars by Briank that she used to look down into the quarry and catch a glimpse of her father. She eventually was able to locate her father as one of the threehorns pulling a wagon filled with lithium crystals from the mine entrance. She noticed he was wearing a special harness that was perfect for the job. She was also able to watch him for a few minutes afterwards, as he was allowed to rest for a bit before he returned into the mine for another load to pull out. Cera noticed other threehorns doing the same thing, and concluded that this must be what their specialty was as mine workers. Cera smiled to herself at the notion that this alternate Topsy looked to be successful at what he was doing.

Briank later did her a favour by accessing the employee roster of the mine, as she was curious to see what he was like in this universe. His personal profile listed him not only as a foremale of the Threehorn Wagon Puller Group, but also as the Head of their Union. It also showed his marital status as "single", to which Cera concluded that he never actually met the female that would be her mother in this universe; and therefore, the Cera of this universe was never actually born. Briank mentioned that it does happen that some grown ups would have kids, despite being unmarried; but Topsy's personal profile didn't list him as ever having married, or having children.

Later on, when the group stopped for lunch, they visited a fast food place. While the rainbow faces and flatooths had salads and fruits, Chomper had a hamburger and fries combo. Again, the group were concerned that Chomper would not be able to digest the fries and burger bun; but Chomper reassured them by saying he was okay, and that the concoction was actually pretty good. Ruby tried a chicken and Romanian Emperor's salad combo that she thought was quite delightful. To drink, everybody either had fruit juices or water.

Eventually, the group would return to the Enterprise from their long day of exploring and sightseeing. Everybody would turn in early, as they were quite tired from their day of adventuring. Little Foot was still a bit dissapointed at his foolish attempt to try to make friends with his family that was not his family, but he took comfort in the notion that Mr. Kark would do whatever he could to get everybody back to where they really belonged.


	9. Chapter 8 Confrontation

**CHAPTER 8**

**CONFRONTATION**

The sliding doors to Admiral Foster's quarters opened to reveal Captain Kirkland at the threshold. He was surprised to see the two security guards armed with phaser pistols standing one to each side of the doors. They blocked the doors' way as Kirkland walked in and the sliding doors closed behind him.

"Jarrok! Won't you please sit down?" Admiral Foster invited as he indicated the empty seat in front of his desk.

"What's going on?" Kirkland asked. "Jenna..." he said to her. She was standing behind her father's desk, looking very frightened.

Admiral Foster adopted a serious look as he laid his interlaced hands down on the desk. "A most disturbing issue was brought to my attention recently." he began. "Suffice it to say that some things are not quite what they seem, and that appearances can be deceiving..."

Kirkland looked suspicious. "What are you getting at, sir?"

Admiral Foster continued staring at Kirkland. "My daughter here told me about what happened between you two last night... Especially your little... quirks???"

"Quirks?" Kirkland asked.

"Yes... like how you believed that she had an older brother?"

Kirkland laughed nervously. "I was only imagining things. Tell him, Jenn! It was all in my imagination!"

"Truth is, Jarrok: Jenna DID have a brother, but he died when he was still an infant. That, in itself, is not unusual. But what IS unusual is you somehow knowing about it when it's been a family secret all this time that was never told to anyone else!"

"It's true, Jarrok." Jenna said meekly. "Daddy never told anyone else outside the family about my brother, so you couldn't POSSIBLY have known...or even 'IMAGINED' it"

Kirkland was dumbfounded.

"Which brings us to YOU..." Admiral Foster continued. "As you know, this galaxy is a very DANGEROUS place filled with many enemies who'd stop at NOTHING in order to gain the upper hand on The Federation... including impersonating Space Fleet Captains..."

As the Admiral was talking, both security guards came up behind Kirkland.

Kirkland got a look of great surprise. "Sure you don't BELIEVE that I..." he started saying as he tried to get up from his seat, but he was immediately forced back down by the security guards.

"I don't know what you're doing here, and I don't particularly CARE, either!" Admiral growled as he glared at Kirkland. "I just wanna know WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU DID TO CAPTAIN KIRKLAND!"

"What are you saying!!? YOU WANT THE TRUTH!!?"

"YES, I WANT THE TRUTH, BY THE PRIMAL FORCE!!!" Admiral Foster screamed as he banged his fist on his desk, causing his daughter to jump.

"ALL RIGHT! HERE'S THE TRUTH: I AM Captain Kirkland... just not the Captain Kirkland you know..."

"What!?" Admiral Foster asked in confusion.

"The Captain Kirkland you know is in the Beta Quadrant! I come from another universe... A parallel dimension... Same goes for the Enterprise and it's crew..."

Admiral Foster and his daughter remained silent for a few moments as they shot each their own surprised look at Kirkland, while both guards standing behind him looked at each other in confusion.

"You're lying!" Admiral Foster finally said, breaking the silence. "Alternate dimensions are just theories..."

"We thought the same thing, until we arrived here..." Kirkland said.

"How?" the Admiral asked.

"We passed through an ion storm, which somehow opened up a giant doorway between our universe and yours..."

Admiral Foster remained silent for a few moments as he took what Captain Kirkland said in. Finally, he spoke up. "All right... If what you say is true, answer me this: Do you have an alien race in your universe called the Arkallians?"

Kirkland nodded. "We do, and they're quite hostile."

The Admiral nodded in turn. "Same here. My question to you is: Assuming you're very much like our Captain Kirkland, what maneuver did you use to defeat them at the battle of Kandalar?"

Kirkland smiled. "Easy... The Cochrane Ultra Light Speed Brake..."

"He IS Jarrok!" Jenna suddenly said.

The Admiral smiled and nodded. "All right! You've convinced me! You ARE Captain Kirkland..."

Kirkland smiled back. "I'm glad you believe me NOW..."

"Sorry for doubting you..." the Admiral apologized.

"Me, too..." Jenna said in turn.

Admiral Foster then dismissed the two guards, who bowed and took their leave.

No sooner had they left the office did everybody start to relax. "Only Captain Jarrok could've answered that question, as that mission was classified... in our universe, anyways... I imagine it must've been in your universe as well..." Admiral Foster said.

Kirkland nodded. "It was..."

"And it was a most difficult maneuver!" the Admiral admitted.

"But I was able to pull it off..." Kirkland smiled.

The Admiral laughed. "That you did! But I'm guessing you and your crew must be trying to figure out how to get back to your universe?" He then asked, changing the subject.

Kirkland nodded. "We are. Mr. Kark's already worked out a way to get us back to where we belong. He and the crew are working on it as we speak..."

The Admiral laughed again. "I see your Mr. Kark's just as resourceful as ours is..."

Kirkland smiled and shrugged. "What can I say!? He's a Vulkadian..."

Everybody laughed at this.

"WELL, now that we've cleared all this up, how's about some more bourbon!?" The Admiral asked as he got up and went to get the bottle located in the small cabinet beside his desk.

"I thought you'd never ask!" Kirkland asked.

"Care to join us, dear?" the Admiral asked his daughter as he poured out the glasses for both he and Kirkland.

"OH! No..." Jenna smiled as she politely declined. "You two males go ahead... I should be heading back to my greenhouse anyway..."

"Later, honey!" the Admiral said to his daughter.

"Bye, daddy!" Jenna said as she kissed him on his cheek.

"So... I guess I'll see you later?" she said to Kirkland as she walked past.

"Sure..." Kirkland said with a smile.

She looked back at him and smiled as she walked out of the office.

Both smiling males klinked their glasses and started another drinking spree together.


	10. Chapter 9 Homeward Bound

**CHAPTER 9**

**HOMEWARD BOUND**

It took another two days before the Enterprise could be ready to undertake their voyage home. Mr. Kark had worked intently with not only Chief Engineer Sloan and his staff, but with the repair crews assigned to the ship. By the second day, it was no secret any longer that the Enterprise located in the orbital dry dock was not THEIR Enterprise; nor was it a secret where they came from, either.

Admiral Foster broke the news to The Federation Council, and the Council decided to let The Space Fleet do whatever they thought was necessary to ensure that the Enterprise gets back safely to where it belonged.

Meanwhile, Briank, Yolanda and Little Foot's gang continued exploring the alternate Terra, and taking in all of the more important sights on the planet; including The Hoosier Dam, The Effek Tower, The _Arche De La Victoire,_ and Mount Roontian.

What they thought was most astounding about the Mount Roontian monument was that there was a fourth bust carved out of the mountain alongside the other three long dead Presidents. But it was no rainbow face that was depicted! The fourth President was a sharptooth!! The plaque on display said his name was Braik O'Bannon, and he was "The First Sharptooth President of The United Laurentian States". Briank made sure there would be a visual record of this for the Enterprise's data banks, as with all other sights of importance he's visited over the last few days.

While they were taking in all of the sights, Captain Kirkland was spending some time with Jenna Foster. Although she knew that this Captain Kirkland was not the male that she loved, she still fell under his charm, and was always eager to spend every waking moment with him.

On the eve of their departure, Captain Kirkland had invited Jenna out for a stroll on the beach. He had chosen one that was semi private, and that not a lot of people would be walking on. Solaria was just beginning to set when they arrived there hand in hand, strolling along and just talking.

"So... Tomorrow's the big day..." Jenna said casually.

Kirkland nodded. "Tomorrow's the big day! If everything goes right, we'll be back in our own universe, and orbiting Terra... OUR Terra..."

"And you trust Mr. Kark to be able to pull this off?"

"Implicitly!" Kirkland smiled.

Both rainbow faces continued on in silence along the boardwalk adjacent to the beach. They could hear the sound of the waves crashing along the shore. Even at that hour, there were still some people out surfing, or swimming. Off in the distance, they saw the orange glow of a bonfire. Somebody was having a beach party!

After a few more moments of silence, Jenna sighed and leaned her head against Kirkland's shoulder. "I wish you didn't have to go!"

"You know I must..." Kirkland said as he held her close. "Besides, you have my counterpart to worry about..."

Jenna sighed again. "I know... But it won't be the same... He's not like you, you know..."

Kirkland nodded. "Agreed... But that doesn't mean you can't... MAKE... him more like me..."

Jenna looked up at him. "How?"

"You can start by telling him that you still love him... that you still care about him...There's nothing wrong with that..." Kirkland suggested. "If that doesn't make him more loving and attentive towards you, NOTHING will!"

After taking this in, Jenna nodded. "Sounds like a good idea!" She smiled.

"There you go!" Kirkland smiled back.

"And what are you gonna do about MY counterpart?" Jenna asked after a few more moments of silence.

"The same thing... at the risk of having her big brother tell me he's gonna kill me, if I ever break her heart again..." Kirkland said jokingly, making Jenna laugh.

Then they both stopped and shared a passionate embrace as Solaria was setting just below the horizon.

* * *

The next morning, everything was ready! Mr. Kark had done some final calculations from his science station on the Bridge. All that was needed now was final clearance from the Exeter Monitoring Station.

"I have Monitoring Station Exeter for you on Channel 1, Captain..." Lieutenant urbina stated as soon as Captain Kirkland emerged from the turbo lift.

"All right, Lieutenant!" Kirkland said as he went over to his Captain's chair. "Yes, Exeter?" he said as he opened the channel.

"This is Monitoring Station Exeter giving you final clearance to depart..." said the voice of the station's Controller over the intercom.

"Thank you, Exeter!" Kirkland replied.

"And... may the Primal Force be with you, Enterprise..." came the Controller's voice again.

Kirkland smiled. "Thank you..."

"Mr. Koralenko, clear all moorings, release docking clamps... and take us out..." Kirkland ordered as soon as he switched off the intercom.

"Aye, sair." said the smiling Navigator as he pressed the buttons on his console to maneuver the Enterprise out of orbital dry dock.

"Heading one four two mark six, Mr. Chang..." Kirkland ordered.

"Aye aye, sir! One...four... two... mark six..." said Mr. Chang as he pressed the buttons on his console.

"Accelerate slowly to full light speed, Mr. Chang." Kark ordered from his science station. "Then five seconds prior to entering the ion storm, increase to Ultra Light Speed factor two..."

Mr. Chang bore a concerned look on his facial features as he turned to face Kark. "But, sir! Don't you think that five seconds before we enter the storm is cutting it too close?"

"Negative!" Kark answered. "Everything has been precisely calculated..."

"Captain?" Chang asked as he turned to Kirkland.

"Do as he says, Lieutenant!" Kirkland ordered.

"Aye, sir." Chang acknowledged as he pressed a button on his console.

The engines hummed into action as the turbo lift's sliding doors opened up revealing Briank, Yolanda and all of the young Saurians. Briank grunted as he squeezed out of the lift holding the entire gang. The limited size of the lift made for very tight quarters, especially when all of the young Saurians and his wife were there with him.

"Sorry, sir!" Briank apologized. "I tried to get them to stay in their quarters, but they insisted on coming to the Bridge..."

After a moment, the Captain nodded. "All right... Just tell 'em not to interfere with anything..."

"Yes, sir! All right, you heard him..." Briank said as he gestured towards an area on the Bridge that was well out of the way of the working crew.

"ETA to ion stworm threshold: fifteen sweconds." Mr. Koralenko announced. He then started counting down. "Ten... naine... eight...sweven... seex... five..."

"NOW!" Kark cried, thus prompting Lieutenant Chang to press the button on his console to accelerate the ship to the Ultra Light Speed factor Mr. Kark had requested.

"Four... three... two..." Koralenko continued to count down.

"Hang on, kids!" Briank prompted as he reached for the Bridge's nearby safety rail. Everyone else did the same. Petrie wrapped himself physically around the railing, shivering in fright; while Ducky just gripped one of Spike's legs and hung on for dear life.

"One..."

The sound of electrostatic energy resonated as the ship penetrated the ion storm. The reflections of bright blue flashes coming from the outside and filtering through the front viewscreen could be seen everywhere on the Bridge as the ship was being jostled around in the turbulence. Everyone hung onto something as the Enterprise shifted violently to the left and to the right. Captain Kirkland shut his eyes against the brightness of the flashes being caused by the ion storm.

* * *

On the border of the ion storm, two bright flashes could be seen just before the Enterprise emerged from a third flash.

On board, everyone on the Bridge could feel the Enterprise slowing down as it dropped out of Ultra Light Speed. The decreasing hum of the engines was also an indication of this fact. Everyone stayed silent for what seemed like an eternity before Kirkland finally gave out an order.

"Mr. Chang... Please resume course for Terra... one quarter light speed..."

"Aye, sir." Mr. Chang acknowledged, pressing the necessary console button bringing forth the engines' hum once again.

"Mr. Kark... Scan the surface of Terra and report..." Kirkland ordered of his Science Officer.

Kark switched on his scanners and soon gave his report. "I am detecting several Saurian life forms..." Then he turned to face Kirkland. "No sign of rainbow face or Vulkadian bio readings; nor is there any trace of civilization whatsoever..."

It took a few moments for this to sink in for Kirkland. "We're home..." he whispered. "We're HOME!" he said again, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Then the entire Bridge crew erupted into cheers and cries of joy.

"Reestablish synchronous orbit over the Great Valley area once we get there, Mr. Koralenko!" Kirkland ordered once the cheering has died down.

"Aye, sair!" said a beaming Koralenko as he pressed the necessary buttons on his console.

Kirkland then made a shipwide announcement revealing the good news to his valiant crew. Echoes of cheering would be faintly heard after Kirkland switched off the intercom.

"Oh, no!" Little Foot cried out with a look of great concern on his facial features.

"What is it, Little Foot?" Yolanda asked.

"I just realized something: We've been gone from The Great Valley for four days now! Our families must be worried sick!!" He sighed. "They probably think were already dead..."

"Actually, that may not entirely be true..." Mr. Kark said as he came forward.

"What do you mean?" Little Foot asked as he looked up at the big Vulkadian.

"During my initial calculation for inter dimensional travel, I was able to figure out how to bring us back in time to just after the accident occured. In reality, only fifteen minutes have passed since we passed through the ion storm and into the other dimension..."

"What's this I hear about time travel?" Dr. McLelland asked. The Chief Medical Officer had just arrived on the Bridge giving a routine check of the officers to make sure no severe injuries were incurred during their trip through the ion storm.

"In essence, I found a way to bring us all back in time to shortly after we passed through the ion storm the first time..."

"Meaning?" Dr. McLelland pressed.

"MEANING that barely fifteen minutes have passed since we first entered the storm..."

"And you were able to figure all of this out in your head!?" the good Doctor asked.

Kark raised an eyeridge and nodded. "I did..."

Kirkland couldn't help but crack a smile at this.

"I must mention, though..." Kark continued. "that I could've easily brought us back in time to BEFORE the accident occured, thus avoiding our trip into the alternative dimension alltogether..."

"Oh?" Dr. McLelland said in surprise. "Why didn't you?"

"I had overheard some of the pleasurable experiences the crew have spoken about in the Recreation Room while visiting the alternate Terra; which would make for many memorable moments; especially the experiences Captain Kirkland had with the alternate Jenna Foster. A trip back in time to BEFORE the accident occured would undoubtedly erase those pleasant memories for everyone; therefore, I... felt it necessary to allow the crew to retain what they've experienced in that alternate universe..."

Dr. Mclelland smiled slowly. "Why, Kark! Did you do this because it was the LOGICAL thing to do!?"

"No..." Kark replied. "But it was the RAINBOW FACE thing to do..."

Dr. McLelland beamed. "There's still some hope for you! We'll make a rainbow face out of you yet!!"

Kark raised his eyeridge again. "Really, Doctor... I hardly think that insults are within your prerogatives as this ship's Chief Medical Surgeon..."

The good Doctor's happy expression quickly dissapeared as he sighed. "Forget it!"

This sparked laughter from all of the young Saurians. A lot of the grown ups couldn't help but chuckle themselves.

"But what you're saying is..." Little Foot began as the laughter died down. "that hardly a day has passed since we left the Great Valley this morning???"

Kark nodded down to Little Foot. "That is EXACLY what I'm saying...There is still enough time to get you all home... 'in time for supper', as they say..."

Little Foot and his friends cheered at this! They underwent what would be the most incredible adventuring of their lifetimes, and none of the grown ups in the Great Valley would ever even guess that they went on it!

"Speaking of which..." Captain Kirkland said as he approached the group. "Lieutenants Riggs, the shuttlepod awaits you in the bay for you to take these fine young Saurians home..."

"We'll get right on it, sir!" Briank responded as Little Foot and his gang cheered again.

Then he led them to the turbo lift where they all squeezed inside once more.

"Captain..." Lieutenant Urbina called from her station as the turbo lift's sliding doors closed behind them. "Incoming message from Space Fleet... We're being recalled home..."

Captain Kirkland smiled. "All right... Acknowledge reception of the message..."

"Aye, sir." Urbina complied.

"We'll leave as soon as Briank and Yolanda return..." Kirkland announced.

* * *

"So there you have it..." Kirkland said into his log recorder. "Both Lieutenants Riggs returned the Saurian children safely to Terra, and the Enterprise left orbit maybe an hour ago...Although the details of our... accidental mission... may be classified by Space Fleet, the images and memories of what we've all experienced won't be... Note commondations to both Lieutenants Riggs for not only compiling the database of all the information we've amassed about this... alternate Terra... but also to Mr. Kark for his efforts in getting us safely home... We're on our way back to Terra Beta where our bodies, our souls... and my heart... truly belongs..." He smiled as he said that last bit. "Kirkland out..."

He switched off his personal log recorder and moved to retire for the night. He would soon fall asleep dreaming of what he'd say to Jenna Foster... HIS Jenna Foster... once he got back to Terra Beta...

* * *

Meanwhile, in their quarters, Briank and Yolanda were beginning to settle down for the night.

After Briank had just finished placing another tape labelled "Alternate Terra" on his shelf, then he took Yolanda in his arms and kissed her tenderly on her lips.

"Another adventure worthy of our collection!" he announced.

"Indeed..." She smiled up to him as she accepted another kiss from him.

"You know what I feel like doing right now?" She began.

"Do tell!" Briank prompted as he smiled tenderly at her.

"I feel like... listening to that 'song of hope' of yours..." She said as she smiled back.

"Ah, yes! I think I know which one you're referring to..."

He rifled through a stack of file tapes on his desk, and eventually found one labelled "Electronic Lights Symphony". He put the tape in the appropriate slot of the computer and pressed the button to play the file.

Both rainbow faces started dancing as the upbeat disco music started. Briank made sure the volume was turned up loud enough so that they both could really "feel" the beat of the song. The following lyrics could be heard:

Hold on tight to your dreams

Hold on tight to your dreams

When you see your ship go sailing

When you feel your heart is breaking

Hold on tight to your dreams

Sail on time to be gone

(Hold on! Hold on!)

Time just rolls on and on

(Hold on! Hold on!)

When you need a shoulder to cry on

When you get so sick of try ons

Hold on tight to your dreams

When you get so down that you can't get up

When you want so much, but you're all out of luck...

* * *

The next day, in The Great Valley, Chomper was seen building a small mound of dirt. He placed one of the white golf balls on top of it and grabbed the driver. "Ready, Spike!?" he called to the big spiketail.

Spike warbled and nodded with enthusiasm.

Chomper swung the club back and let loose a powerful drive that sent the golf ball flying a long ways away. Spike cried in joy as he ran off after the ball.

Little Foot and his gang all laughed with joy as they then got into an improvised game of tag while Chomper cried and danced around holding the driver up in the air. It would be another fun filled day in The Great Valley, where the bright circle was shining down it's warm rays, and not a cloud in the sky could be seen for miles around!

* * *

On the alternate Terra, Admiral Foster and his daughter were standing at the foot of a grave located in a cemetary outside Francescanville. Jenna had brought a bouquet of "death flowers", and she laid them at the foot of the headstone that read: Here lies Brenk Alexander Foster. Our short term bundle of joy! He was buried right beside his mother, and Admiral Foster's wife. He had already laid down his bouquet of death flowers for "his sweetheart".

After she laid the flowers down next to her brother's headstone, she started sobbing uncontrollably. Her father took her in his arms in a comforting embrace. After all these years, she was finally able to grieve for her brother. A brother that she never knew!

Admiral Foster noticed a family of longnecks gathered around another grave located a short distance away. _I wonder if they've lost a child, like we did. _He thought.

One of the longnecks, the elder male, turned to look at him. Admiral Foster nodded to him. The longneck male nodded back, looking very sad indeed. _EVERYBODY who comes here is ALWAYS sad! _He thought to himself as he continued to comfort his grieving daughter. Years of mourning were let out by her over the course of the afternoon.

* * *

Roughly two weeks later, on the distant planet knows as Terra Beta, Captain Kirkland walked into the greenhouse being kept by that very special person in his heart.

Ever since the Enterprise left it's orbit around Terra, he thought about what he was going to say to her once he arrived. That moment had finally come for him!

She had her back turned to him as she was tending to her flowers. She was a Botanist, and it was a part of her job! He stopped a few feet away from her. She still had not noticed that he was there.

"Hi, Jenna." he finally said after a few moments of silently standing there.

She slowly turned to him... and smiled brightly.

He smiled right back at her.


End file.
